Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Apr 11: Even as militants, who killed the son of the owner of popular eatery the Kirshna Dhaba in Kashmir were nabbed by police within hours of the attack, the concerned locals had voluntarily helped the cops to crack the case.
Sources said it was for the first time in the recent past that a local Kashmiri had behaved so responsibly in informing the police about the attackers, while the observers attribute the "good change in mindset of locals to the abrogation of the so called special status of Jammu and Kashmir."
Akash Mehra, who succumbed to injuries 10 days after his arrest in February, was alive but hospitalized when the police had nabbed three Kashmiri militants in connection with the case.
Highly placed sources close to police said that it was some concerned eyewitnesses of the attack at the dhaba at Durganag, who instantly informed police that the militants had fled on the motorbike and that they were three in number.
As per the sources close to the investigations, soon after the attack, a civilian had called one Superintendent of Police and informed that he had personally seen the attackers who were riding a bike. Immediately after getting this specific information, the police team had accessed the CCTV footage that helped them identify culprits.
As per police, Vilayat, Owais, and Suhel- had targeted the victim.
As per the police all the three youth were lured by a Lashkar-e-Toiba Commander Gazi for the attack.
As per the police, "The main aim of the attack was to instill fear among the tourists on a day when EU envoys were in Srinagar."
The police have claimed to have recorded the confession of the accused in a video to be produced before the court along with the challan.
A senior official said since the abrogation of the so called special status of Jammu and Kashmir, many more of people of Kashmir were coming forward to fight militancy by informing security forces about the movement or presence of militants. |
