Islamabad/New Delhi: Pakistan on Thursday rejected India's assertion that a LeT terrorist captured alive after a terror attack in Udhampur yesterday was of Pakistani-origin and asked India to refrain from making "accusations".
"We have also seen media reports and I will not offer any comment on that issue. We expect the Indian authorities to share information with us on the claims that are being made in the media," Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Syed Qazi Khalilullah said on the arrest of the terrorist in India.
"We have said many a times that making immediate accusations on Pakistan is not correct. These things should be based on facts. We expect that whenever Pakistan is being accused of something, it will be accompanied with correct evidence," he said.
Khalilullah said that the Indian claim was baseless. "We have repeatedly asked India to refrain from accusations."
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Separately, a Pakistan government source was quoted by the Express Tribune as saying, "National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) record shows Indian claims of an arrested person, Usman Khan (Mohammed Naved Yakub), originating from Pakistan are totally baseless."
Pakistani officials were quoted by media reports as saying that there was no record of the man arrested in India. Geo TV also reported that the man arrested in India was not registered with NADRA.
A Pakistani militant was captured by a group of villagers on Wednesday, soon after he and another terrorist had ambushed a Border Security Force convoy along the highway connecting Jammu and Kashmir’s twin capitals of Srinagar and Jammu. Security officials here said he is a “prize catch”.
They added that the arrest of militant Usman Khan, alias Qasim, may not only unravel the relationship between the network of Pakistan-based militants and their local clique, but also help foil “the enemy’s designs on Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of the country”.
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Mohd Naved, who says he hails from Faislabad in Pakistan, claimed before the media that he entered the Jammu region 12 days ago along with a fellow terrorist identified as Momin Khan. Khan was killed in retaliatory fire by the BSF.
"I came to kill Hindus," said Naved, dressed in a dark blue shirt and brown trousers, with a relaxed demeanour. He also alleged that Kashmiris were being killed all the time.
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He told officers he entered Kupwara district in the Kashmir valley a month ago but retreated as he could not make any headway.
A resident of Ghulam Mustafabad (Faislabad) in Pakistan, Naved, believed to be in early 20s, has two brothers and one sister. One of them is a lecturer while the other runs a hosiery business.
"It has been 12 days since I came here. We walked all days in the jungle," he said as villagers clicked pictures with the prize catch.
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"I am from Pakistan and my partner was killed in the firing but I escaped. Had I been killed, it would have been Allah's doing. There is fun in doing this," Naved said.
Initially, he said that he was in his early 20s but later claimed that he was only 16. He has been changing his statements. First he identified himself as Kasim and later as Usman, and then as Naved.
This has been the modus operandi of banned Lashkar group sending youngsters to Jammu and Kashmir with the direction that in case they were caught, they should claim to be below 18 years so that they are tried as juveniles.
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Comparisons are being drawn with Ajmal Kasab, the only Pakistani terrorist taken alive after the Mumbai 26/11 attacks. Two BSF troopers were killed and 11 were hurt in the attack on Wednesday.
The militant, soon after the deadly attack on the BSF convoy at Samruli, along the 294-km Srinagar-Jammu highway, raced into a nearby village where he took shelter in a school. There were no students or staff members present due to the shutdown in support of the demand for an AIIMS in Jammu region, officials said.
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They added that the militant was captured and handed over to the police by the very people whom he had taken hostage in an attempt to escape from the scene of the attack.
He had assured the villagers that he would not harm them. After four hours, one of the villagers pinned him down and another took away his AK-47. He was then handed over to the police.
