Two Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and two of their security guards have been arrested for faking a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district last week in an attempt to get more security cover, reported The Economic Times on Monday.
On July 16, the two leaders, identified as Ishfaq Ahmed Mir and the saffron party’s spokesperson in Kupwara district, Basharat Ahmad, said they had been attacked by militants. Villagers also confirmed that gunshots had been heard.
Mir, who is the son of the BJP’s Kupwara President Mohammad Shafi, had then been hospitalised for treatment. On July 16, the Kupwara Police said that the weapon of a personal security guard had accidentally gone off and Mir was injured.
However, after the revelation, the police said that a personal security guard had opened fire in the air as the BJP leaders had asked.
“We also started talking to our people in the area to gather facts from the ground and something was amiss,” BJP spokesperson Manzoor Ahmad Bhat told The Economic Times. In charge of the BJP office in Kashmir Priya Sethi said in an official letter that certain “reports from different sources” had led to questioning the credibility of the workers.
The BJP has asked for an explanation from Shafi about the incident, according to News18. Shafi was suspended after the matter came to light.
BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur said party leader GM Mir will look into the incident and submit a report on July 25. “Till then, the Kupwara district president will remain under suspension,” he said.
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