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| Hizb chief Gazi Misbahuddin back in Police custody | | |
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Aug 25: Jammu & Kashmir Police has succeeded in re-arresting former “Chief Commander of Operations” of Hizbul Mujahideen, Nisar Ahmed Bhat alias Gazi Misbah-ud-din of Arwani, Kulgam, within a week of his dramatic disappearance from the premises of District & Sessions Court Anantnag where he had been enlarged on bail on August 19th. Failure to re-arrest him in other criminal cases already registered against him had caused an unprecedented embarrassment to Police. Even as an inquiry had been ordered to find involvement of insiders into the ‘escape’, Police and security forces were on tenterhooks to get Gazi arrested at any cost.
IGP Kashmir, Farooq Ahmed, told Early Times that Police conducted as many as twelve raids at Gazi’s suspected hideouts in all the four districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama in the last few days and finally succeeded in getting him arrested from one of his hideouts in outskirts of Anantnag township this evening. SSP Anantnag, Dr Shaukat Ahmed Malik, added that Gazi had been arrested and detained for his involvement in a different militancy related matter. Both the officials declined to disclose the location of Gazi’s arrest today. Their apprehension was that militants could suspect the house-owner and harm him as had been witnessed in a number of identical cases in the past.
IGP and SSP said that Gazi was taken into custody without any resistance from him. They said that no arms or ammunition were seized from the particular house but Gazi would be interrogated to know how exactly he had disappeared and who were the people in contact with him.
On August 19th, District & Sessions Judge of Anantnag had directed to remove his handcuffs and subsequently ordered Gazi’s release on a bail that had been granted to him in the past but not honoured by Police. Thereafter, Gazi had vanished in mysterious circumstances. Even as a number of other FIRs stood registered against him and he was wanted in several militancy related matters, he was not re-arrested by Police. It has been a routine for different agencies of Police to re-arrest the released militants and book them in other cases even if they are granted bail by a court in a particular matter.
As there was no attempt to re-arrest Gazi after he was enlarged on a previous bail, top echelons of J&K Police had been subjected to unprecedented embarrassment with his ‘escape’. An inquiry had been ordered next day to find if any “insiders” were involved in facilitating Gazi’s “escape”. Working with a deadline, Police finally got him back in its custody within a week today. J&K Police had arrested Gazi from one of his hideouts in Sheikh Dawood Colony, Batmaloo, in the capital city, on December 4, 2007, and claimed that he had been involved in scores of killings and terrorist attacks on Police and security forces.
Gazi had played an important role to eliminate internecine clashes between smaller groups of his organisation and more significantly with some Pakistan-based Jihadi militant outfits in over three years before his arrest in 2007.
On December 5, 2007, Hizbul Mujahideen had managed to leak the news of Gazi’s arrest which was quickly spread by two local news gathering agencies through SMS at a time when Police and armed forces had remained tightlipped and had been planning to execute him in a fake encounter.
Gazi had been operating as Hizbul Mujahideen "Chief Commander of Operations" in J&K since May 6th, 2004 when his predecessor Abdur Rasheed Pir alias Gazi Shahab-ud-din alias Shardar Pir of Khonmoh, Pampore, was killed by Police and security forces in an encounter in the Srinagar interior locality of Maharaj Gunj. He had remained close to Hizb “Supreme Commander” Syed Salah-ud-din and also worked as his driver and personal security guard in 1993.
Gazi’s arrest had come close on the heels of a chain of reverses for Hizbul Mujahideen in 2004-07 period. On February 24, 2004, Police and security forces had eliminated Hizb's top wanted "Divisional Commander", Abdul Majeed Wani alias Arif Khan in an encounter at Kanzkullah, Kulgam. On February 15, 2004, BSF had killed its "Deputy Chief", Ghulam Abbas Malik alias Abbas Rahi of Doda in an encounter at Tengpora, Batmaloo. On January 16, 2004, Hizbul Mujahideen had suffered the worst setback when Army and Police killed its "Chief Commander of Operations", Ghulam Rasool Dar alias Riyaz Rasool alias Gazi Naseer-ud-din at Shalteng in Srinagar outskirts. His elimination came 9 months after Hizb's "Chief Commander of Operations", Ghulam Hassan Khan alias Engineer Zaman alias Saiful Islam, was killed by Police and BSF at Nowgam, in Srinagar outskirts, on April 2, 2003.
Meanwhile, in hours of Gazi’s arrest in south Kashmir, an encounter started between troops of Rashtriya Rifles 9th Bn and militants at Chandergi hamlet in Kulgam late tonight.
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