Several close family members of a PDP leader in Kishtwar, including his father and elder brother, on Friday survived 12-hour long hostage crisis after three gun-totting terrorists barged into their house in Gurian area of Kishtwar and fled the house after thrashing his security guard along with his service weapon.
The 'sensational' incident, second in the last six months, prompted district authorities to immediately impose curfew in Kishtwar to prevent escape of this group of terrorists. Additional forces were deployed on ground zero to cordon off the area before launching a massive manhunt in the area.
Before fleeing, in the one of the family cars of a PDP leader, three terrorists kept his father, elder brother, women and children as hostages in separate rooms for about 12 hours in the house.
The incident came to light after the security guard, tied in robes, freed himself and rushed to the nearest police station to inform the snatching of his service weapon by a group of terrorists.
Narrating their 12-hour long ordeal, Dr Sheikh Nazir, elder brother of PDP leader Advocate Sheikh Nasir, told reporters in Kishtwar, "Three terrorists barged into their house on Thursday night between 11.30-12.00 pm and confirmed the identity of my brother."
He said my brother is a district president of PDP in Kishtwar. They snatched his mobile phone and pressurised him to call his PSO. He claimed, they spent the whole night in great trauma. "The children were scared and women were kept in separate rooms," he added. Dr Shiekh Nazir also claimed, the terrorists repeatedly claimed they have been directed to kill PDP district president along with his PSO.
Dr Sheikh Nazir also informed reporters, "One of the three terrorists were holding AK rifle while two others were armed with pistols." He said, "On Friday morning around 9 am they directed all of us to assemble in one room and tied hands of one of the servants with ropes."
Dr Sheikh Nazir said, "They threatened my brother, by placing pistol on his forehead, to call his PSO to report on duty. On his arrival, "these terrorists beat him up and snatched his service weapon and also tied him with robes in one of the rooms." Dr Sheikh Nazir claimed, "They demanded us to hand over some rice bags to hide service weapon and sped away in one of the family cars after my brother refused to hand over keys of his own car." "While stepping out of the house they had even locked the main gate of our house," Dr Nazir told reporters.
Dr Nazir claimed, "First of all the PSO managed to escape from the window of a room after freeing himself and it is then local police and other officers reached the spot.
The incident was reported barely 24 hours after three JeM terrorists were arrested by the Kathua police while they were ferrying 6 AK-rifles via Punjab to Kashmir valley on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner, Kishtwar, Angrez Singh Rana told The Pioneer. "We have imposed curfew in Kishtwar town after a gun-snatching incident was reported on Friday morning. He said, a large number of security personnel were deployed on ground zero to track down these terrorists. The police teams were searching whereabouts of these terrorists. Earlier, terrorists had snatched service weapon of his own PSO in the month of March 2019 this year from his rented accommodation.
For last over one year, Kishtwar is witnessing terrorist related violence. The peace prevailing in the hilly district was shattered with the killing of Parihar brothers in November 2018. Later, a senior RSS functionary along with his PSO was killed inside district hospital by unidentified gunmen in April 2019.
"As per our inputs, names of Lashkar's Osama and his accomplice Zahid and one unknown militant, have surfaced in snatching of a weapon from the PSO of a political leader in Kishtwar," Jammu & Kashmir Director General of Police, Dilbagh Singh said.
Singh said that the security forces, Army and police are after them, adding, "We are on job and have launched searches in the Kishtwar district to apprehend them."
The J&K Police Chief said that they will soon be trapped and added, "The militancy is in its last leg in Jammu & Kashmir and the remaining self-styled commanders of different outfits will also be neutralised soon."
He however, said that so far 137 terrorists have been killed in the Valley by the Security Forces.
