Author: M Saleem Pandit & Sanjay Khajuria
Publication: The Times of India
Date: December 24, 2008
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3878264.cms?TOI_mostread
India got more evidence on Tuesday of Islamabad's
complicity in terror attacks on Indian soil when J&K police arrested three
terrorists, including a Pakistani army regular.
The other two are Jaish-e-Mohammed operatives.
According to J&K DGP Kuldeep Khoda, the three were sent from Karachi to
Kathmandu in Nepal from where they sneaked into Uttar Pradesh. They then took
a train and reached Jammu to disrupt the election process in the state.
"One of the three terrorists was identified
as Ghulam Farid (alias Gulshan Kumar), a sepoy in 10 Azad Kashmir regiment
of Pakistan army. His service number is 4319184. The other two were identified
as Mohammad Abdullah from Harpur in NWFP and Mohammed Imran from Dera Nawab
in Bahawalpur," said DGP Khoda.
All three were nabbed from Hotel Samrat in
Jammu, near the bus stand. Farid joined the Pakistan Army in 2001 and was
detailed for terrorist activities in 2005, the police chief said. Before getting
into the Pakistani Army, Farid was a member of Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami and
underwent training at Barnala terror camp, according to DGP Khoda.
The two terrorists, Abdullah and Imran, were
trained by Mufti Abdul Rauf, the brother of JeM chief, Maulana Masood Azhar,
named by India in the list of terrorists it wants extradited from Pakistan.
"All three had booked hotel rooms under
fake names. They were waiting for a guide with arms and explosives and who
would identify targets for them," Khoda further said.
This isn't the first time that a Pakistani
soldier has been found involved in terrorist activities. On July 29, 2006,
a major of the Pakistani army was among three infiltrators killed in an encounter
in Gurez sector in Baramulla district, north Kashmir. Then defence spokesman,
Lt-Col V K Batra, had then said that Major Mohammad Hyder Turkey, alias Abu
Bilal, was a serving major in the 9th Baluch battalion of the Pakistan army
and among the three slain infiltrators who had crossed the LoC on July 28
in Gurez.
"The killing of Turkey, a resident of
Gujranwalla, Pakistan, confirms involvement of Pakistan army in cross border
infiltration," the spokesman had then said. The other two slain terrorists
were identified as Mohammad Qasim, alias Abu Usman, and Mohammad Ayub Khan,
alias Islam, both Pakistanis. On May 11, 2008, in Jammu's Samba sector, a
group of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists attacked villagers at Kaily Mandi and
killed 6 people. The attack led to an encounter between the security forces
and the terrorists which lasted more than 18 hours.
With its headquarters in PoK's Jabbarwal area,
al-Mansoorian, an offshoot of LeT, had claimed responsibility for the Kaily
Mandi attack.
