The Jammu and Kashmir police has decided to “fact check” the arrest of a Srinagar resident by the Delhi police for allegedly financing the terror attack on Red Fort in 2000.
A senior J&K police official told The Hindu that Bilal Ahmad Kawa (37), a resident of Srinagar’s Ali Kadal, “has no case or mention in any case of militancy in the Kashmir Valley so far” in the past 17 years.
Additional Director General of Police-Kashmir Muneer Khan said the accused’s family approached the police on Thursday. “We have talked to the Delhi police and our CID cell in Delhi. We will find out the facts of the case,” said Mr. Khan.
The Delhi police claimed that Mr. Kawa, a member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, was “hiding” for 17 years and the situation in the Valley was not favourable to conduct a raid or search to arrest him. They claimed they arrested Mr. Kawa on January 10 from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on receiving an input from the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad.
‘In Delhi for treatment’
Mr. Kawa’s relatives in Srinagar have refuted the Delhi police’s charges. They said he was recently diagnosed with a heart ailment and was travelling to Delhi for treatment when he was caught by the police.
The family held a demonstration on Friday in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk and sought his “immediate release”.
“We had suggested that he see a doctor in Delhi. If he was a militant, will he travel like this? He was carrying eatables when arrested. What made them (police) conclude he was planning anything?” said Mr. Kawa’s mother Fatima Jan.
She said her son dealt in rugs and was a frequent traveller to Delhi. “He has no links with anything,” said Ms. Jan, adding, “The family said he was never absconding. Please confirm from my neighbours if my son was absent from his residence. He is a father of two children.”
