Bomber Claim ‘Hoax’: Girl handed over to mother, leaves for Pune silently

Srinagar: Pune-based teenage girl who was detained by Jammu and Kashmir Police on January 25 for allegedly being a suicide bomber has been silently handed over to her family.

Official sources said that whatever was alleged against her proved mere hoax and that she along with her mother left for Pune at 3:00 PM on Saturday. Her maternal uncle, who arrived with her mother, had already left for Pune few days back.

Sources further said that the girl was extensively questioned all these days during which she was in police captivity at Rambagh but nothing was proved against her.

They said it was a clear case of misinterpreting an intelligence input by Jammu and Kashmir Police who were reportedly informed by central security agencies that a Pune-based girl had shifted her base to Valley and there was need to mount surveillance.

Additional Deputy General of Police, Muneer Khan who is functioning as Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Range had stated that it would be premature to declare her suicide bomber when he was asked by the reporters at the time of girl’s arrest.

The misinterpretation of the input had led to heightened security across the Valley on January 26.

“Whatever was alleged against her proved hoax, she was allowed to leave and she left along with her mother for Pune at 3:00 PM from Srinagar airport,” a police officer who wished not to be named confirmed.

Soon after the girl’s name was disclosed by Jammu Kashmir Police as Sadiya Anwar Shaikh, the Maharashtra Police in categorical terms said that there was no case registered ever against the girl in Pune, the second populous city of Maharaharata.

Talking to Srinagar-based news agency GNS, Joint Commissioner of Police, Law and Order Pune City, Ravindra Kadam had said that no case has been registered ever against the teenage girl who was arrested by police at Bijbehara.

“No case is registered against the girl (Sadiya Anwar Shaikh),” Kadam told news agency GNS when asked about reports suggesting that she was detained by police for alleged radicalization of youth in Pune.

He also responded in negative to the question whether Pune police had communicated to their counter parts in Kashmir regarding the girl travelling to Kashmir.

Asked whether JKP communicated to Pune police regarding the girl’s arrest, he said: “No”. (GNS)