The Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) police on Saturday (11 January) arrested a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) rank officer along with two terrorists of the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) in the Kulgam district of the Union Territory (UT), reports The Times of India.

The arrest of the DSP Davinder Singh along with the two terrorists gains significance as Singh has previously served in J&K police's special operations group (SOG) for counter-insurgency tasks and was now serving in the anti-hijacking squad.

According to J&K police, he was rewarded with a gallantry medal for his participation in countering a fidayeen attack by terrorists at the district police lines in Pulwama on 25-26 August, 2017, when he was posted as a DSP in the district police lines, Pulwama.

The arrest took place near Mir bazar in Qazigund area of Kulgam district. The police party which carried out the arrest was led by South Kashmir deputy inspector general (DIG) Atul Goel.

Meanwhile, the two HM terrorists nabbed have been identified to be Naveed Babu who is a top commander of the terrorist outfit and Asif Rather who is a listed terrorist and had joined the HM three years ago. The duo belong to Shopian in Kashmir Valley.

Correction and clarification: An earlier version of this story implied DSP Davinder Singh as a recipient of President's Police Medal. However, after the clarification by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, it was learnt that the subject was not awarded with the aforementioned medal. The error had been corrected and edited on 14 January, 2020 at 6:07pm.

Swarajya regrets the error and inconvenience caused.