Another terror attack, suspected to have originated from Pakistan, left two Border Security Force (BSF) constables dead on the crucial Jammu-Srinagar highway on Wednesday.
But one of the two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists involved in the attack was captured alive, like Ajmal Kasab was in the 2008 Mumbai terror strike. The capture gave the Indian security establishment the ammunition to claim Pakistani involvement in the attack.
"In our preliminary questioning, he has said he is from Faisalabad, Pakistan," Danish Rana, inspector-general of police, told reporters.
Armed with assault rifles, Mohammed Naved Yakub - son of Mohammed Yakub and resident of the 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. 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.
The attack came a week after a 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, said sources. First he said he was Kasim Khan but then changed it to Usman before stating that he was actually Mohammed Naved. He said he had two brothers and a sister.
Naved disclosed that he, along with four other terrorists, had entered Kupwara district in the Kashmir Valley two months ago on a similar terror mission but had crossed back into Pakistani-occupied-Kashmir because they could not make any headway, said sources.
Later, he along with three others had entered via the Baramulla area by cutting the border fencing. During interrogation, he said they had stayed at Tangmarg and Baba Reshi and shifted base to Awantipura-Pulwama where he remained inside a cave on a hillside, said sources.
The group split and he along with Noman moved to Kulgam in South Kashmir from where they boarded a truck to Jammu on Tuesday. They got down at Udhampur after staying at Patnitop for the night.
On Wednesday, he fired two magazines at the BSF convoy before fleeing and taking three villagers hostage, who overpowered him, according to a report submitted to the home ministry. He has undergone two types of training with LeT, it said.
The captured terrorist presented a strange picture before television cameras, smiling a few times and answering questions calmly. He told reporters, "it's fun doing this". Had he been killed it would have been "the Allah's doing", he said.
