J&K police detains over 400 suspects in overnight raids

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir police has detained and questioned hundreds of locals across Kashmir Valley, following the killing of a former army man in Kulgam district of southern Kashmir.

Police have not officially informed the exact number of people summoned or detained. However, officials claim that locals suspected to have any direct or indirect link with the militant networks have been detained or summoned. "This is a deterrence measure to ensure no other attack happens in the coming days as this attack was brazenly executed in broad daylight. More than 400 people must have been detained or summoned," a police official said. Unidentified gunmen killed former territorial Armyman Manzoor Ahmad Wagay and injured his wife and niece near their house in Behibagh village of Kulgam on February 3 afternoon.

Such large-scale detentions and summoning of suspects across the Valley, also happened, a day after an unverified video, purportedly of a top Lashkar e Toiba commander Saifullah Kasuri, speaking at a rally somewhere across the border surfaced on social media. In the video, Kasuri threatened to intensify attacks in J&K in the coming days and claimed that by February 2026, "the situation and the maps of Kashmir will be changed".


"By February 2026, you will see a changed map in Kashmir. Kashmir will be the land of La Ilaha Illallah and we will keep up our efforts till then," he said in the video.

Meanwhile, former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah said that attacks like Kulgam belie the claims of those who say that militancy is on the decline. "Let those people be held answerable, who inside and outside the Parliament claim that militancy has ended in the region. If militancy has ended, then incidents like this should not have happened," Abdullah told reporters.