Banihal SSB attack: Third terrorist arrested, Chinese pistol recovered

Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir Police have arrested the third terrorist believed to be behind the recent attack on a Sashastra Seema Bal camp in Banihal in which a jawan was killed.

According to ANI, the arrested terrorist has been identified as Aquif.

Aquif hails from Kaskoot and is a student of Government Degree College at Khannabal in Anantnag district.

A China-made pistol has also been recovered from him.

After attacking the SSB personnel, he had been on the move from one place to another to evade arrest.

Aquif's uncle was a divisional commander of Hizbul Mujahideen.

The Jammu and Kashmir Police had earlier arrested two terrorists - Gazanfar Ahmad (21) and Arif (25) -  both Banihal residents.

On Wednesday, the three terrorists attacked a SSB unit just when the troops were returning to their camp after patrolling the Jawahar tunnel. They snatched two weapons from the SSB personnel before fleeing. 

An SSB head constable was killed and an ASI injured after these three terrorists had attacked them in Banihal on the night of September 20 and fled after snatching their weapons.

The terrorist attack in the area had come after a long time as Banihal had been terrorist free after security forces and police had killed two militants in the area over six years ago.

Police then said id that all the three were new terrorist recruits who were in touch with both the Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba outfits. However, for their formal joining in any of these outfits, they were tasked to first snatch weapon from police or security forces personnel.