Arrested youth is not SPO: JK govt

Jammu and Kashmir government today denied media reports that an arrested youth, allegedly linked to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in North Kashmir, was a Special Police Officer (SPO).
"As far as Fayaz Ahmad Dar is concerned, he is not an SPO. Someone has given you wrong information that he is a Special Police Officer. He is not at all an SPO," Minister of State for Home Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo told reporters on the sidelines of a function here today.
Reports in a section of the press stated that Fayaz Ahmad Dar was an SPO and working as a driver of Javed Ahmad Dar, former minister and sitting MLA from Rafiabad Assembly Constituency, was arrested by Jammu police yesterday after recently apprehended LeT commander Qari Naveed alias 'Fahad', disclosed that he was part of the terror organisation.

Kichloo, however, said Fayaz was not an SPO and someone had given wrong information to the media about him.
"We have caught him...We had caught an LeT (Lashkar-e-Toiba) commander from Sopore of the name of Fahad, he is a Pakistani. He had spoken about Fayaz Ahmad. Fayaz Ahmad is a civilian. He is not an SPO. We have arrested him. We have recovered an AK-47 and some explosives from his home. He has been arrested and investigations are on," he said.
When pointed out that Fayaz was associated with a former minister, Kichloo said, "I have stepped out of home, there are 20 people around me. Now, if someone among them is caught in an illegal act, what is the fault of the minister in that."

"If he had some official status, had he been in police, had he been a constable, had he been a driver in police, we would have agreed that he should have been thoroughly enquired before being inducted into service," he said.
"Since morning I have attended around 1,000 people. Now the 1,000 people a minister attends, who knows who among them is what," Kichloo said.
Fahad, who was the Chief commander (operations) of LeT for north, was arrested from Bahrampora village of Sopore, by a joint party of police and Army on April 18.