Police in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) said on Wednesday they had arrested a militant commander leading the armed insurgency that has fought against New Delhi's rule of the region for two decades. The arrest of Muhammad Ahsan Dar -- who founded the Hizbul Mujahideen group in 1989 and later set up a splinter group called Muslim Mujahideen -- is a major breakthrough, said officials. He was picked up in the northern district of Bandopora, senior police officer Abdul Gani Mir told reporters without saying when the arrest was made.
Mir claimed that Dar -- who served several jail terms over the last two decades -- returned to IHK last year to try to re-invigorate the violent struggle against Indian control of the Muslim-majority region.
Describing Dar as a 'prize catch', Mir said that he "was coordinating the activities of various militant outfits, including the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT)" -- which has been blamed for the Mumbai attacks.
"Dar has organised various attacks on security forces and was trying to give a fresh impetus to the militant activities within the state," said Mir.
Dar was first arrested in 1989 but escaped from a hospital and went to the Pakistani side of Kashmir, said police, adding that he was again arrested in 1993 and was released after serving a six-year jail term.
