New Delhi/Islamabad: India yesterday said the Udhampur terror attack that led to the dramatic capture of a Pakistani terrorist was aimed at derailing peace in Jammu and Kashmir. Islamabad meanwhile denied that the young guerrilla in Indian custody was a Pakistani.
And in a familiar repeat of the arguments advanced after Pakistani terrorists caused mayhem in Mumbai in 2008, Islamabad sought proof from New Delhi for the captured terrorist’s Pakistani link.
“We strongly condemn the attack and the persistent attempts by terrorists from across the border to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere in Jammu and Kashmir,” Home Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament.
Two terrorists ambushed and killed two BSF troopers on the Srinagar-Jammu highway in Udhampur district last Wednesday. After one of the terrorists was killed, the other, now identified as Naved alias Mohammad Usman, fled to a village and took shelter in a house but was caught by three villagers.
Rajnath Singh said the captured terrorist — believed to be 20-something — admitted he was from Faisalabad in Pakistan.
Pakistani authorities denied that Usman was a Pakistani.
Official sources said that the suspect was not a Pakistani as information about him was not found in the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).
NADRA also said images of the terrorist shown on Indian television did not match any Pakistani citizen. Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilulla was more forthright, “We have repeatedly asked India to refrain from (hurling false) accusations.”
Meanwhile, the Pakistani terrorist was shifted to the Joint Interrogation Centre at Talab Tillo area in Jammu where intelligence officers from the state and New Delhi quizzed him.
Jammu and Kashmir government sources said that a National Investigation Agency team headed by Inspector General Sunil Kumar visited the site where a BSF convoy was attacked at Narsu Nallah in Udhampur.
The sources said Mohammed Usman was likely to be shifted out of Jammu and Kashmir for sustained interrogation.
India is expected to take up strongly with Islamabad the terror attacks at Udhampur and earlier in Gurdaspur in Punjab, which left seven people dead.
IANS
