Wanted Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Javed Mattoo arrested by Delhi Police Special Cell
Mattoo, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir's Sopore district had a bounty of Rs 10 lakh on his head.
Having rescued the 12 close relatives of policemen and 2 cops released from the custody of terrorists on Friday evening, the security forces and intelligence agencies are busy chalking out their strategy to prevent such incidents in future.
The kidnapped relatives were exchanged in a “swap” with the detained father of top Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) commander Riyaz Naikoo.
The police is reported to have also released three HM terrorists in exchange of the abducted persons.
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The security forces have released a list of the most wanted ‘A++ category’ terrorists with Naikoo on the top as he had claimed responsibility for kidnapping of kin of policemen.
The tactic adopted by the terrorists to seek release of the terrorists might become a perpetual headache for the security agencies as most relatives of police, Army, CRPF and BSF personnel reside in civilian areas across the state and remain vulnerable to such incidents, intelligence officers point out.
Naikoo’s father was reportedly detained by the police as a pressure tactics after the recent incident of killing of four policemen by terrorists in Shopian of which the responsibility was claimed by the HM commander.
After killing the cops, the terrorists fled away with their service rifles.
The undeclared swapping of Naikoo’s father and three other terrorists, picked up from their homes by police after killing of 4 policemen, came after the kidnapped people in a video appealed the top brass of police not to harass relatives of terrorists.
It is learnt that they were released only after the police set free Naikoo’s father and the terrorists.
Meanwhile, Mehbooba Mufti, former Jammu-Kashmir chief minister and PDP chief, has come under criticism for drawing parallels between the kidnapped relatives of policemen and families of terrorists.
She had on 31 August tweeted: “Militants and forces victimizing each other’s families is highly condemnable and marks a new low in our situation. Families shouldn’t become casualties and made to suffer for something they have little control over.”
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