The Jammu and Kashmir police are investigating the role of former MLA and a National Conference (NC) leader in the alleged escape of a top Hizbul Mujahideen militant commander. Police said that the militant used the leader’s official car and was taken to Amritsar early this month under official police escort from where he is said to have escaped to Pakistan. Sources told The Sunday Express that the Anantnag police are investigating NC leader Gul Rafeeqi, who they say accompanied Hizbul’s South Kashmir divisional commander Mohammad Amin Baba to Amritsar in the vehicle provided to him by the government. With them, the police claim, were his former private assistant Farooq Ahmad Bhat, an armed Personal Security Official (PSO) Kewal Singh, driver Sham and a doctor. Bhat, Singh and Sham have already been picked up for interrogation. Rafeeqi has been asked to ‘‘remain available’’ for questioning. Bhat has already been booked under Public Safety Act. ‘‘We are developing the information to know what exactly happened,’’ Inspector General of Police, Kashmir range, Javaid Maqhdoomi told The Sunday Express. When contacted, Rafeeqi confirmed that his former assistant, the driver and his PSO have been arrested but denied the charge. Calling it a ‘‘conspiracy’’ against him, he said: ‘‘I had gone to Chandigarh to attend the marriage of a bureaucrat’s son and on my return the police told me they had information that the security provided to me has been misused. Later, a police team came from Anantnag and asked me to hand over my PSO and driver. They arrested my former assistant Farooq Ahmad Bhat too. They (the police) have asked me to remain available for questioning.’’ Sources said the case came to light when the police were investigating a mine-blast in Anantnag and arrested a suspect Javaid Ahmad. Hizbul commander Baba was also a suspect and when the police questioned Javaid about him, they learnt that Baba had recently crossed over to Pakistan via Amritsar. ‘‘This alarmed us and on further interrogation, Javaid revealed that Baba had gone to Amritsar with Gul Rafeeqi in his official vehicle,’’ a police officer said. Police claim that Rafeeqi left from Srinagar for Chandigarh on May 2 where he had to attend the marriage of a bureaucrat’s son. The Hizbul commander and Bhat boarded Rafeeqi’s vehicle on the Srinagar-Jammu highway near Anantnag. The militant, sources said, was escorted to Amritsar. When asked about the allegations against Rafeeqi, his party president Omar Abdullah said: ‘‘If there is anything against him (Rafeeqi), the law will take its course. We want an impartial probe in this matter.’’ He said the Mufti government had done nothing when militants were arrested from a minister’s house. ‘‘He still remains a minister. Where is the justice?’’ he said. Abdullah challenged the government to hand over the case of the politician-militant nexus in the state to the CBI. ‘‘Everything will come out then,’’ he said. Abdullah was referring to the case involving Agriculture Minister Abdul Aziz Zargar. Police said that Lashkar militants had planned the Akshardham attack in his ancestral house. The Minister, who had denied any role, had offered to resign but was asked to stay by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. No case was filed against him.
