Three newly recruited LeT militants held in Kupwara: Police

Srinagar: The government forces on Thursday claimed to have arrested three newly recruited militants affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) during a brief exchange of gunfire in Sogam area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
An official said the trio were arrested in the forest area after a surveillance team traced their movement in the area.
He said that trio belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba militant outfit and on Wednesday afternoon their gun wielding pictures had gone viral on various social media sites. “Two of them belong to Lalpora while the third one is from Kralpora,” they said.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kupwara, Shriram Ambarkar Dinkar said that the trio were arrested in the forest area after surveillance team traced their movement.
He said that soon after receiving the inputs, surveillance team started tracking their movement and this morning their location was traced in Sogam forest area.
“A search operation was jointly launched by security forces. During the searches, the trio was held along with the arms and ammunition,” they said.
Replying to a query, he said they were recruited by Pakistan based handlers of LeT who diverted them to join militant ranks and they would communicate through social media.
Talking about the presence of militants in Kupwara, he said, there is only one militant active and reportedly he is operating in south Kashmir. “Our efforts are underway with his family members to motivate him to shun the path of militancy and return back home.”
He also request the local youth to report to the police in case anyone is trying to motivate them through any medium particularly social media to join militant ranks