NEW DELHI: What led to the arrest of Javed Ahmed Mattu, a wanted Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist was a tip-off of him coming to Delhi to collect arms and ammunition from his associates.
“On Thursday a tip-off was received that Javed Ahmed Mattu, a wanted A++ category terrorist of Hizbul Mujahideen, would be coming to Delhi to collect arms and ammunition from his associates at the behest of Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),” Special CP HGS Dhaliwal.
Police on Thursday arrested the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist, accused of 11 terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, from the Nizammudin area.
According to a senior Police official, Mattu, a resident of Sopore, Jammu and Kashmir, was an ‘A++ category’ terrorist carrying a reward of more than Rs 11 lakh on his arrest. It was also informed that his Pakistan-based handler would be coordinating the delivery of arms and ammunition, and Mattu would carry out some audacious terror strikes in J&K and another place on his instructions.
The police team under the supervision of Addl. CP. Pramod Singh Kushwah was constituted which apprehended Mattu from the Nizammudin area, the Special CP said. Dhaliwal said that Mattoo was a member of the gang of seven dreaded terrorists of Hizbul Mujahideen operating in the area of North Kashmir, particularly Sopore, J&K.
“He is the only surviving A++-category J&K-based terrorist. After getting injured in an exchange of fire with security forces, he went underground and fled to Nepal on the instructions of Pakistan ISI, as J&K police were hotly chasing him,” the senior officer said.
The Special CP also informed that Mattu was shot a decade back by security forces in an encounter during which he received a bullet injury and since then he started limping.
“This affected him as before that he used to take part in attacking the security forces,” the officer said. Mattu’s six other terror associates have been identified as Abdul Majid Jarger (currently in Pakistan), Abdul Qayyum Nazar (killed in exchange of fire with the security forces), Tarik Ahmed Lone (reportedly died by drowning when he jumped into the river on being cornered by security forces), Imtiyaz Kundu (fled to Pakistan in 2015-16 and is currently operating with Jarger), Mehraj Halwai (killed in exchange of fire with the security forces) and Waseem Guru (killed in exchange of fire with the security forces).