He said two (rpt) two BSF personnel had been martyred in yesterday’s attack.
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The case is being transferred from the Jammu & Kashmir police to the National Investigation Agency, given the national importance of the capture and potential subsequent ramifications. “We condemn it”, he said.
“Please spare him.” Naved has also told his interrogators that he belonged to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based militant group behind the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in which Ajmal Kasab was captured, tried and hanged.
The Jammu and Kashmir police initially said he was called Usman Khan, a resident of Faisalabad in Pakistan. The Indian home minister said that the two paramilitary personnel were killed and 14 others injured in the attack. “We have also seen media reports and I will not offer any comment on that issue”. He first claimed he was in his early 20s, but later said he was only 16. Local police of Jammu and Kashmir can not do the job.
First he identified himself as Kasim and later as Usman and later as Naved. “They are likely to be paraded before the captured militant Naved on Sunday”, they said.
On Wednesday, at Udhampur, in Jammu and Kashmir, a terrorist was overpowered and held by the villagers he had allegedly taken hostage.
The BSF vehicle was peppered with bullets but the troopers fought back, one officer said. “It has been 12 days since I came here”.
Former chief minister Omar Abdullah lauded the civilians for their courage. His accomplice was killed by an alert BSF jawan who opened fire after the bus they were travelling in came under attack. News reports quoted the captured Pakistani as saying on Wednesday that he and his fellow militant wanted to target the ongoing Amarnath Yatra.
Around the time the Basantgarh firing was reported on Thursday evening, another encounter was on in Pulwama in south Kashmir after three suspected Lashkar terrorists holed up in a house attacked a police team that was looking for them.
In a statement in Parliament on the attack, Mr Singh said two terrorists had attacked the convoy at around 0700 hours yesterday on the Jammu-Srinagar highway near Narsoo Nallah in Chenani tehsil, abut 18 km from Udhampur town.
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Tensions between India (predominantly Hindu) and Pakistan (mostly Muslim) have existed since 1947, when the Indian subcontinent gained independence from Great Britain and the partition created Pakistan.
