After intelligence reports that Kashmiris employed as drivers and security guards in city are carrying out recces for terror outfits, cops to conduct background checks on them
After intelligence reports that Kashmiris employed as drivers and security guards in city are carrying out recces for terror outfits, cops to conduct background checks on them
Kashmiris in the city, already caught amid allegations of drug trafficking, have further sunk into suspicion in the eyes of the police, after specific intelligence inputs that a few of them have sought odd jobs in the city to mask ulterior motives involving sizing up the city for terror-related activities.
According to officials, groups of Kashmiris have settled in Mumbai in the last couple of months, seemingly to avoid the unrest and the severe winter gripping the Valley.
But they are suspected of reconnoitering the city for terror groups. MiD DAY had reported yesterday about Kashmiri youth smuggling drugs to the city after being enticed with a lavish and indulgent lifestyle ('Sex, money used as bait by city's drug lords', January 17). The police are already on the lookout for such traffickers.
And now, they have come under police scanner for doing the bidding of terror groups in Pakistan, such as carrying out surveillance to help plot attacks in the city, hone in on vulnerable terror targets, relay sensitive information about strategic facilities back to their handlers, conscript rookie terrorists, and so on.
The state's Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) had, in November last year, arrested two Kashmiri youths for allegedly trying to recruit members for the terror outfit, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), and obtaining details of military and oil installations in Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Mohammed Thakkar (33) and Mohammed Kumlakh (29) were working as oil tanker drivers and were allegedly enlisting foot soldiers for LeT, acting on instructions from their handlers in J&K and Pakistan.
Police stations under whose jurisdiction oil depots and defence installations fall have been asked to keep their eyes skinned for suspect Kashmiris in their neighbourhood.
The alert specifically directs the police to instruct private security agencies, which employ Kashmiri men as security guards, to conduct a thorough background check.
The agencies have been asked to immediately inform the police before hiring so they can scrutinise the person's credentials.
'Not profiling'
The intense vigil and check have evoked sentiments from certain quarters that the police are infringing on the constitutional rights of Kashmiris in the city, by subjecting them to profiling.
Advocate Kamayani Bali Mahabal has written a letter to Police Commissioner Sanjeev Dayal protesting the move, saying that it violates the fundamental rights guaranteed to Indian citizens.
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"This, we find extremely disturbing, as it goes against the very grain of our constitutional rights and values that ensure equality of all citizens in the eyes of the law," said Mahabal, in a two-page letter to Mumbai police.
Top cop speaks
Quelling concerns of regional discrimination, Commissioner Dayal said that this is not tantamount to profiling of people of Kashmiri origin, as cops are only acting to avoid unruly incidents, after receiving specific alerts against certain disruptive elements. "The checks are not for all Kashmiris in the state, but only those who seek employment as private security guards," said Dayal.
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