Threat to Kashmir journalists may have originated from Turkey-based terrorist: Report

JAMMU: Turkey-based terror operative Mukhtar Baba and six of his contacts in Jammu and Kashmir are suspected to be behind threats received by several journalists in the Valley in the past couple of days, according to an intelligence dossier.

Several journalists resigned from local publications recently after being threatened by terror outfit The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow organisation of the Lashker-e-Taiba.

As per the intelligence dossier, “initial assessment suggests that terrorist Mukhtar Baba is the mastermind” behind the threats.

Mukhtar Baba (55) used to work for various newspapers in Kashmir. He was a resident of Srinagar in the 1990s and is believed to have escaped to Turkey, it said.

Baba, who often visits Pakistan, has emerged as a mastermind responsible for grooming youngsters in the Valley to join the TRF, the dossier said.

He is suspected to be in touch with six associates in the Valley, and two of them have been identified, it added.

Baba has built a network of informers in the journalist community, and used their inputs to prepare a list of scribes to threaten, the dossier said.

According to the document, Mukhtar Baba was a member of the Hezbollah in the 90s but was thrown out unceremoniously after he was charged with selling AK-47s to rival terror outfits. He joined Masarat Alam in 2010 with a pivotal role in the 2010 summer agitation, it added.

TRF recently issued an online threat to a few media houses in the valley “for their traitorous” acts and “nexus with fascist Indian regime”. Srinagar police had registered a case and launched an investigation in view of the threats issued to journalists.