POK man arrested in J&K identified as terrorist guide

Jammu: A Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) resident arrested along the Line of Control (LoC) in J&K’s Poonch district on Sunday while attempting to infiltrate into India has been identified as a terrorist guide.

Officials said 22-year-old Mohammad Arif Ahmed from Dadote-Kotli in POK was apprehended on Sunday afternoon in a forward area in Bimber Gali sector, when he was leading a group of Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, suspected to be four in number, into the Indian side. The alert Army troops noticed suspicious movement along the LoC and foiled the infiltration bid.

While Arif was nabbed, the terrorists accompanying him escaped by jumping off from a cliff, and returned to the Pakistan side taking advantage of thick foliage and adverse weather conditions, the sources said. The footage of a drone put on surveillance in the area after the incident showed a blood trail, indicating that some of the terrorists had suffered injuries while jumping from the cliff, the sources added.

The security forces seized a mobile phone and Pakistani currency amounting to Rs 20,000 from Arif. He told the interrogators that he was familiar with the local terrain and worked at the behest of the Pakistani Army to help terrorists infiltrate into J&K.

Arif is undergoing a detailed interrogation and crucial intelligence was being extracted that could help in further examining the counter-infiltration grid in the region, the sources said.