Pak militant posing as Kashmiri held

Sources said Hakim Shah’s youngest son,Rukhsar,and his brother,Shakoor Shah,too have been taken into custody for presenting a Pakistani national as their family member.

While Senior Superintendent of Police,Rajouri,S Anand Jain,refused to comment except that some people have been picked up for questioning and that it was a routine matter,sources said the “Pakistani militant” has confessed during interrogation that he was a Pakistani national and Hakim Shah was not his father. He reportedly told that the interrogators that he,along with Jamman Shah,had crossed over to this side from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 1998,but after sometime the latter was killed during an encounter in Fazalabad.

Sources said that the arrested Pakistani militant has disclosed his real identity as Tanvir Shah alias Hamza,son of Mushtaq Shah of Rawalpindi in PoK. Significantly,he had disclosed the same identity to security forces at the time of his surrender,following an encounter in Rajdhani area in 2005.

The revelation comes at a time when the Jammu and Kashmir government claims to have received over 600 applications on behalf of former Kashmiri militants who wish to return home from Pakistan and PoK. A number of these youth are reported to have fled in their teens 15-20 years ago.

The incident would have gone unnoticed,but for the dedication of a field intelligence official who kept on ringing the alarm bells at senior level from time to time.

Sources said Hakim Shah had three sons — Qurban Shah,Jamman Shah and Rukhsar Shah — all living together at Sharung village.

At the onset of militancy in Valley in 1990,Jamman,along with his younger cousin Ishaq,crossed over to PoK. Both reportedly landed at a local hotel there and Jamman,then 17-18 year old,left for somewhere asking Ishaq to wait.

Jamman never returned and Ishaq was forced to work at the hotel for survival and after two months,he somehow managed to return home in Sharung village.

Ishaq narrated the story to the family,but no one lodged a missing complaint about Jamman. Seven years after the disappearance of Jamman,a militant surrendered before 43 Rashtriyat Rifles at Dhorimall forests in Rajdhani area on April 18,2005,sources said,adding he had disclosed his name as Tanvir Shah.

Sources,however,said Tanvir had actually surrendered in Majhoor area of Thanamandi on December 2,2003,before then Commandant of 43 RR.

However,his surrender was not shown on records and as the 43 RR wanted to use his services against other militants operating in the area. It was during his stay with the troops that Tanvir got in contact with Ishaq,Jamman’s cousin.

Subsequently,after Tanvir was acquitted by a court for want of evidence,Hakim Shah took him home claiming that he was his “missing son — Jamman Shah’’.

The next year,he got him married with a local girl,Parveen,who is daughter of Latief Shah alias Munshi.