India may grant consular access to captured Pak terrorist

India has handed over to Pakistan High Commission here a letter from suspected LeT terrorist Bahadur Ali, written in his own hand, seeking legal assistance, and said the Pakistani national may be provided consular access, if sought by Islamabad.
Ali, who has been in NIA custody since last week of July, wrote a letter addressed to the Pakistan High Commissioner to India seeking legal assistance, official sources said.
The sources said 21-year-old Ali, who hails from Raiwind in Pakistan's Lahore, had given detailed address in his home town and an identity card which proved he was a Pakistani national.
They said India may provide consular access to him if Pakistan made such a request.

Ali was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir police on July 25 after locals in Yahama village of Kupwara in North Kashmir informed them about his movement. The case was later handed over to the NIA which brought him here and interrogated him at length.
During interrogation, NIA claimed, Ali alias Saifullah said that Lashkar-e-Taiba was fuelling the unrest in Kashmir, especially after gunning down of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces.

Ali's 'confessional video', released by NIA yesterday, shows him spilling beans about LeT's role in the disturbances. He is also shown speaking about the LeT's sophisticated communication network and assistance rendered to it by the Pakistani army.

NIA also showed to the media a video of Ali, a Punjabi-speaking man, talking about his family, the time he spent in the terror outfit and his crossing over to the Indian side of the border.
This is for the first time that NIA has shown a video statement of a captured militant. Pakistan had earlier this year shown a video statement of Kulbhushan Yadav, an Indian national arrested in Balochistan in March over charges of spying for Indian intelligence agencies. However, Pakistan did not provide him consular access.