A policeman fights back protesters in Srinagar on Friday. (AFP)

Srinagar, Aug. 21: The recent resurgence of militancy in Srinagar has turned out largely to be the handiwork of a police constable working for the Hizb-ul Mujahideen.

Abdul Rashid Shigan and his militant associate, Imtiyaz Ahmad Gojri, have been arrested. Their disclosures have left the police brass red-faced as they have come weeks after the arrest of other policemen involved in other attacks.

Valley police chief S.M. Sahai said Shigan and Imtiyaz were both Srinagar residents working for the “Kashmir Islamic Movement”, a front for Jammu and Kashmir’s largest militant group, Hizb.

The two were allegedly behind most of the 13 militant strikes in Srinagar in the past year and a half. What is more embarrassing is that Shigan, posted on guard duty at the Bandipore police chief’s residence before his arrest some days ago, could pull off the attacks without getting caught for so long.

Sahai said Shigan had admitted his role in the 13 militant strikes in Srinagar starting with the attack on Nazir Ahmad, the SHO Batmaloo, last year. He was allegedly involved in killings of retired DSP Abdul Hamid Bhat, police inspector Shabir Ahmad and assistant sub inspector Sukhpal Singh and a daring attack on state law minister Ali Mohammad Sagar. A National Conference activist, Bashir Ahmad, lost his life in one of his attacks.

The police said an attack on a CRPF patrol team, which left seven personnel injured, and rifle grenade attacks on the civil secretariat and an army camp were also carried out by the two.

Police sources said Shigan would either disguise himself as a burqa-clad woman or use a woman’s wig to carry out these attacks. He also had a militant background, which should have alerted the police but did not, the sources said.

“Shigan was previously selected as a trainee constable and was discharged from the police department while undergoing basic training following his involvement in militant activities. He has also been detained under the Public Safety Act for one year. He later managed to get reinstatement orders from the court (in 2002),” Sahai said.

The police chief said Shigan had been an overground worker of the Hizb in his student days in 1996-97.

“With his arrest, we have solved all militancy-related cases in Srinagar in the last one-and-half years. Shigan’s handwriting has also matched with the press note he had given out to local news agencies (to claim responsibility for the attacks),” Sahai said.

“We have recovered 27 items, including three AK-47 rifles, four pistols, grenades and grenade launchers, from his house which was his hideout. Weapons were supplied by regular militant groups in Ganderbal.”

Sahai said subversion of this kind was possible in a “large force” like the Jammu and Kashmir police.

“You need to understand that we have the capacity to uncover it…. After all, we recruit from the same society… we would do scrutiny (of policemen) again. We have a good internal vigilance mechanism,” he said.

He said several groups of militants, which were not part of regular structured militant outfits, had come up. “They are acting on their own and that is why it has become difficult to uncover their activities.”

In June, four intelligence sleuths close to top police officers were arrested for alleged links with militants. One of the four was Mukhtar Ahmad Sheikh, an undercover agent who was arrested by Calcutta police in December 2008 after it came to light that he supplied SIM cards to Lashkar militants engaged in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

The cases against him were dropped after the Jammu and Kashmir police informed their Calcutta colleagues that he was an undercover agent trying to penetrate militant ranks.