Srinagar, April 18: The Jammu and Kashmir Police raided the Central Jail in Srinagar city and seized 20 cell phones and 15 SIM cards from the inmates.
The raids followed the police’s claim that the conspiracy to assassinate Jamiat Ahle Hadees chief Moulana Showkat Shah was hatched in the jail. Shah was killed in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast that took place as soon as he was entering the mosque in Maisuma locality for Friday prayers.
Inspector General of Police (Kashmir zone) S M Sahai had in a press conference on Saturday claimed the police had cracked the assassination plot and arrested three men.
He blamed the conspiracy on “elements of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Pakistan-based general secretary of the United Jihad Council and Muslim League leader Ashiq Hussain Faktoo alias Dr Qasim, who is serving a life sentence in the jail.
When contacted, Senior Superintendent of Police (Srinagar) Ashiq Hussain Bukhari confirmed the raid. “We have seized 15 SIM cards and 20 mobile phones from there,” he said.
Bukhari said some cash was also recovered but that was handed over to the warden. When asked whether the cell phones recovered from the jail were linked to Shah’s assassination, he said: “This is part of the investigation”. The three men who were arrested are Abdul Gani Dar alias Abdullah Gazhali, the chief of a breakaway faction of the Jamiat called Saut-ul-Haq and former militants Javed Ahmad Munshi alias Bill Papa and Nisar Khan alias Ishaq.
Sahai had, however, emphasised that “the larger conspiracy behind the murder is yet to be exposed”.
-Agencies