Yet another terror attack suspected to be originating from Pakistan left two Border Security Forces constables dead on the crucial Jammu-Srinagar highway on Wednesday, but one of the two Lashker-e-Tayiba terrorists involved was captured alive like Ajmal Kasab in the 2008 Mumbai terror strike.
Mohammed Naved, resident of Ghulam Mustafabad area in Faislabad town of Pakistan, along with another terrorist Noman alias Momin, fired at a BSF convoy on the highway at Simroli around 8 am. BSF jawans retaliated killing Noman while Naved managed to escape towards a village in the nearby hills where he took three villagers hostage.
The villagers managed to capture him and call the police who took him into custody, giving the Indian security establishment a prize catch which points to Pakistani involvement in the attack.
Wednesday’s attack came a week after the terror strike in Gurdaspur by three Pakistanis in which they and seven Indians were killed.
During sustained interrogation, Naved, in his early 20s, changed his name several times. First he said he was Kasim Khan but then changed it to Usman before stating that he was actually Mohammed Naved, whose family includes two brothers and a sister.
Naved disclosed that he along with four other terrorists had entered Kupwara district in the Kashmir Valley a month ago on a similar terror mission but had crossed back into Pakistani-occupied-Kashmir because they could not make headway.
The captured terrorist presented a strange picture before television cameras smiling a few times and answering questions calmly telling reporters, “it’s fun doing this”. Had he been killed it would have been ‘the Allah’s doing’, he said.
Giving details of the incident, Inspector General of Police (Jammu) Danish Rana said the militants hurled grenades and opened indiscriminate fire on the convoy when it reached Nassu belt on its way from Jammu to Srinagar.
As many as 11 BSF personnel were injured in the attack and they were shifted to hospitals in Jammu and the army hospital in nearby Udhampur, which is the headquarters of Northern Command.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that there was no link between the attack and Amarnath pilgrims passing the area.
A convoy carrying Amarnath pilgrims had already crossed the area on the highway when the militants attacked the BSF convoy.
Singh offered condolences to the families of the jawans identified as constables Rocky and Shubhendu Roy who died in the attack even as he spoke to BSF Chief D K Pathak about the incident.
BSF officials at the forces” headquarters in Delhi said constable Rocky, who was killed in the encounter, displayed exemplary courage and shot dead the militant who had attacked the convoy.
While he hailed from Haryana, Roy, the other BSF constable killed, was from West Bengal.
Wednesday’s attack drew sharp reaction from opposition Congress and National Conference who said that India should give a strong warning to Pakistan.
Former state Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah said Pakistan is definitely involved in the terror attacks. “They (the Indian leadership) must give a strong warning to our neighbours that we cannot tolerate this any longer, and this is enough. On the one hand, we talk about dialogue and on the other hand terror activities continue.
“Till when will this go on? Do we just have to die, as the dialogue is not reaching any conclusion. I would like to tell the Indian government that they must convey with immediacy to our neighbours that enough is enough, we do want peace with you, but we will not tolerate terrorism any longer. They must appeal to the neighbouring government (and say) otherwise be prepared to face consequences,” he said.
NC leader and ex-Jammu-Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah said Kashmir’s condition was already in a bad shape, and now this new militancy has started.
“Educated youth are getting drawn towards militancy. Today, you saw an attack in Jammu, that too in an area from where we had wiped militancy clean. This is another evidence of the incapability and failure of this government. Militancy is not shifting, it is merely resurging in areas from where we had managed to clear it,” Omar said.
