On the morning of February 5, Jammu and Kashmir police arrested a 21-year-old man at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. Deported ...
On the morning of February 5, Jammu and Kashmir police arrested a 21-year-old man at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. Deported from Qatar, he was identified as Muneeb Ahmad Sofi from Bijbehara area of Kashmir’s Anantnag district. A police press release described him as an overground worker of the banned militant organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed – a charge his family denies.
Since 2017, many Kashmiris, believed to have been sympathisers of global terror group Islamic State or inclined towards joining it, have been deported to India. The National Investigation Agency arrested them and later handed them over to the Jammu and Kashmir police for further investigations.
However, Sofi’s deportation and subsequent arrest marks a shift.
It is the first instance of the Jammu and Kashmir police directly securing the custody of an expatriate wanted for a local crime. Police officials credit this to an administrative change.
In August 2019, Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its special constitutional status and split into two union territories. This brought the Jammu and Kashmir police under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs, one of the two central ministries involved in extradition matters. The Central Bureau of Investigation, which reports to the home ministry, exchanges information with the International...
