Pahalgam attack: Police detain pony rider after he asked a tourist her religion
(File photo)
SRINAGAR:
Jammu and Kashmir police
said on Friday they have detained a person after a video widely circulated on social media showed a woman tourist complaining that he had asked her about her religion. This tourist also claims she had seen the terrorists while on a mule ride two days before the attack and that an overheard phone conversation had frightened her.
Police identified the detainee as
Aiyaz Ahmad Jungal
of Gohipora Raizan Ganderbal district, north Kashmir and said he was a pony service provider at Thajwas Glacier, Sonamarg. The suspect was subjected to sustained interrogation, police said, adding they were trying to ascertain whether this suspect had any connection to the
Pahalgam terror attack
.
A tourist from Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, posted a video on social media claiming she had met the suspected terrorists while on a mule ride in Pahalgam on April 20, just two days before the massacre. Talking to local TV channels in Jaunpur, she said, 'There was a ponywalla who didn't seem to be part of the group of ponywallas when they were ascending towards Baisaran, but he was walking with them.'
'He asked me from which place you are. I said I am from Rajasthan but now live in UP. He asked me whether I had ever been to Ajmer Dargah. I said no, I've never been to Ajmer. Then he asked whether I was Hindu or Muslim. I told him I am Hindu. He asked if I had ever read the Quran, and I said no, I hadn't,' she claimed.
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She claimed he then asked if she could read the Quran in Hindi. She said he also told her that if she came for the
Amarnath Yatra
he would arrange it without registration. 'I tried to avoid his conversation,' she said.
She said he then took out his phone from his boots and started saying he was sending 35 people in the valley. 'Then he said Plan A has failed and he also talked about guns. I got more frightened,' she said.
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