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Major arms haul in Turtuk, 24 arrested

Amberish K Diwanji in Leh

For the past 10 years when the Kashmir valley was rocked by militant violence, Ladakh reminded calm and peaceful, far removed from the daily murders and mayhem. Ladakh's distinct identity -- a Buddhist-dominated region -- and its distance from the vale of Kashmir helped.

But the perception that Ladakh would never be troubled has received a major blow over the past three weeks with the Jammu and Kashmir police recovering a major cache of arms from Pakistan-backed infiltrators in the Turtuk sector of Ladakh.

It may be pointed out that Turtuk is one of the areas under heavy shelling from Pakistan and armed intruders hold certain heights across the LoC. The Indian Army is locked in a major battle against the armed intruders, who, however, have penetrated only one kilometre across the LoC, unlike in the other regions where the intruders have entered up to five kilometres or more.

The Leh police yesterday displayed the arms captured from the militants, which included 20 AK rifles, one rocket launcher, one medium machine gun, one light machine gun and many rounds of ammunition. The police also arrested 24 people, all of whom hail from the Turtuk sector.

The arms were supplied by one Ibrahim Bhutto, a resident of Turtuk village who migrated to Pakistan in 1994 along with his family. Police sources suspect that he has joined hands with the Inter-Services Intelligence and has been given the rank of a major or captain in the Pakistan army.

Turtuk, incidentally, is just 22 kilometres from the LoC and was a part of Pakistan until the 1971 war when the Indian Army captured it along with the Kargil sector. In the bargain, many families in Turtuk lost contact with their relatives in Pakistan since crossing the LoC legally was not possible. However, illegal crossing has continued.

Ibrahim had carried out his operation through his brother Ghulam Mohammad Sangsang, a resident of Turtuk. Mohammad and the other recruits were asked to leave the arms in a number of places in the high mountains, including on one peak that towers above the rest and overlooks the entire Turtuk valley, at 18,000 feet.

''The very fact that the arms included rocket launchers and MMG shows that the arms were not meant for the terrorists but for the intruders who have crossed the LoC,'' said Pankaj Saxena, superintendent of police, Leh. He added that the Indian villagers who helped Ibrahim were paid from Rs 3,000 to 5,000, with more being promised at a later stage.

Saxena said that the captured men's interrogation revealed that the ISI plan was to raise a new militant force to create trouble in those areas held by Pakistan until 1971 -- Turtuk, Kargil, Drass.

The operation to catch the culprits in Turtuk began last month. Police officials said due to militancy and the Kargil conflict, they had been extra vigilant, keeping an eye open to see if there were any changes in the tranquil village life.

Their intelligence helped them zero in on Ghulam Mohammad. It was the army which first arrested Mohammad. Despite detaining him for seven days, he revealed nothing. Later, when the police interrogated him he broke down to reveal his accomplices and the location of the arms.

A police official said, ''It took us a whole week to locate all the culprits and the arms. The MMG was on the 18,000-foot-high peak, and our men took 15 hours to climb the mountain and find it hidden in the snow.''

With this arrest, the police in Leh have prevented this calm oasis from becoming another war zone. If the Pakistanis had captured the highest peak of 18,000 feet, called Keigo, they would have easily commanded the entire Turtuk village and the sub-sector.

''As Tiger Hill in Drass shows, recapturing a mountain height is very, very difficult,'' said Tshering Gyalpo, deputy superintendent of police. The Indian Army must surely be grateful to the Jammu and Kashmir police for making their work less difficult.

This report could be filed from the war front, courtesy Iridium Telecom. Iridium owns and operates a constellation of 66 satellites, which enable subscribers to receive and make calls from anywhere in the world using a hand-held telephone.

The Kargil Crisis

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