Amid suspicion that there might have been a insider hand in the June 14 recent killing of Rifleman Aurangzeb, the Army and intelligence agencies are inquiring into various aspects of the gruesome incident. Involvement of insiders in Aurangzeb killing is being suspected as the rifleman posted with 44 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) was abducted moments after he left his unit to reach his village near Poonch to celebrate Eid with family.
Aurangzeb belonged to the Gujjar community and was a native of Salani village just near the Line of Control (LOC) in Poonch district of Jammu.
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It is reliably learnt that the military intelligence and various other central intelligence agencies were investigating if someone from inside the 44 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) in Kashmir where he was currently posted had passed on accurate information to terrorists about his movement to Poonch to celebrate Eid with his family. Soon after coming out of his RR unit, Aurangzeb had taken lift in a private car to reach Shopian, from where he was to catch a bus to his native town Poonch. Terrorists intercepted the private vehicle and kidnapped him. Aurangzeb’s body with his throat slit and bullet injuries in chest and face was later found lying in Gussu village near Shopian.
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Sources said the mobile phone calls from the area before Aurangzeb’s kidnapping were being scanned by intelligence agencies in an effort to reach the culprits. Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had on Monday told Aurangzeb’s family that his killers would be brought to justice.
Aurangzeb’s elder brother, Mohammad Qasim, who is also a serving soldier in the Army, suspects that someone from the inside might have passed on information about his brother’s movement to terrorists who synchronised his kidnapping and killing in a precise manner.
Mohammad Latif, Aurangzeb’s father, had also said he heard noise of someone asking the driver to stop the vehicle while his son was talking to him on the mobile phone. For about 10 minutes, he heard the noises and thereafter the phone went off.
Reports had said terrorists of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) were behind Aurangzeb killing. The terrorists were keeping an eye on him as he was member of an Army team that killed the top commander of HM, Sameer Tiger, who was a “A++” category terrorist. Sameer’s killing had caused a severe setback to the terrorist organisations operating particularly in South Kashmir.
A video released by the terrorist groups that abducted Aurangzeb showed him bravely acknowledging that he was a soldier of the Indian Army and had participated in anti-terrorism operations in South Kashmir.
Meanwhile, separatist have called for a complete shutdown in Kashmir on Wednesday against the killing of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and gunning down of civilians by security forces in the past few days.