Muslim cleric arrested in J&K for passing sensitive information about Indian Army to Pakistan

Mangalore Today News Network

Srinagar, Sep 03, 2022: The police have arrested a Muslim cleric from Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district for allegedly passing on sensitive information about the security forces to Pakistan. He was also allegedly assisting a Pakistan-based terror outfit called Kashmiri Janbaz Force.

 

Earlier, officials detected the involvement of a person in passing on information about the deployment and the movement of security forces to a Pakistan-based terrorist group.

The suspect was then identified as 22-year-old Abdul Wahid, who worked as a teacher in a Madrassa and as a ’maulvi’ (cleric) at a mosque in Kishtwar.

Last Friday, the police called Wahid to appear for questioning in Kishtwar.

Wahid revealed that in December 2020, he got in touch with one Tayyab Farooqi, alias "Umar Khatab", on Facebook, who introduced himself as the ‘Aamir’ (commander) of the Kashmir Janbaz Force (KJF).

After that, Wahid was initially tasked with uploading photos and content related to the organisation on Facebook and then on WhatsApp, where the so-called commander of the KJF would communicate using a Pakistani phone number.

Abdul Wahid became an active member of the Facebook and WhatsApp groups of KJF, supporting their anti-national activities online. He was even offered a role in KJF as a terrorist.

Abdul Wahid then began communicating with a few other unknown cadres and supporters of KJF who were likely to be Pakistani Intelligence Operatives (PIOs).

He was given a few virtual WhatsApp accounts to communicate with his handlers and instructed to keep his phones clean and change his devices frequently.

The accused was also asked to motivate people to join the KJF and send locations, photos and videos related to the Indian security forces, to which he agreed.

Wahid sent the terror groups information about the routes for infiltration into India. He also helped them with the locations of Army camps and training locations.

The police have charged Wahid under the relevant sections of the UAPA and the CrPC.

He is likely to be produced before a court soon. Further leads are being investigated by the forces.

Courtesy: India Today