Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
THE Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Nagpur has got custody of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist from Jammu & Kashmir who had conducted recce of Dr Hedgewar Smriti Bhavan of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Reshimbag in July last year. Raees Ahmed Sheikh Asadulla Sheikh (26), a resident of Khati Mohalla, Chandara, Awantipora town of Pulwama district in J&K, is being thoroughly interrogated by the ATS since the last two days.
During interrogation, Raees reportedly told the investigators that a person named Omar, who is operational commander of JeM’s Nawabpur (Pakistan)-based terrorist launching pad, was his handler. Raees came to Nagpur by a Delhi-Mumbai-Nagpur flight on July 13 and checked into a hotel in Sitabuldi area. The handler had assured Raees that a local man would contact and help him at Nagpur in the operation. However, Raees conducted the reconnaissance on his own as no person contacted him at Nagpur, according to sources.
On July 14, Raees took an auto-rickshaw and reached Reshimbag with the help of Google Map. The location was sent by his handler, sources claimed. His target was to conduct recce of Smriti Bhavan. He deboarded the auto near Reshimbag ground in the afternoon. Raees reportedly told the investigators that he took video of Hedgewar Bhavan while walking through Reshimbag ground and pretending that he was talking to someone on cellphone. He later shared the video with his handler on WhatsApp but got admonished over poor quality of the video. He was instructed to again shoot the video. However, fearing police, Raees switched off his mobile phone.
Sources said, Raees then called the autorickshaw driver and asked him to take to a Masjid. The auto driver dropped him at a Masjid near Santra Market gate where he stayed for the day and returned to the hotel in the evening. On July 15, Raees returned to Srinagar by a Nagpur-Delhi-Srinagar flight, sources added.
Commissioner of Police (CP) Amitesh Kumar had told ‘The Hitavada’ that Raees, coming from a poor background, was technically sound in electrical work. He got recruited in the JeM on the recommendation of a friend to manage his finances. The friend was killed by security forces in an encounter recently.
A case under relevant sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was registered against Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) at Kotwali Police Station. The probe was transferred to ATS on the instructions of the then DGP Sanjay Pandey.
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