I came here to kill Hindus, says Pakistani terrorist Usman during interrogation

Srinagar: 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”.

Another militant involved in the attack was killed in retaliatory fire by the BSF, officials said. Usman had assured the villagers that he would not harm them. After nearly four hours, one of the villagers pinned him down and another took his AK-47 rifle away. He pleaded with them, “Let me go,” but they held him down till the police arrived, the villagers said.

Udhampur deputy commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudhary said village defence committee members helped the hostages overpower the militant. The three villagers the militant had taken hostage at gunpoint are Des Raj, Subash Sharma and Jeevan Sharma.

Officials said Usman told his interrogators he is from Pakistan’s Faisalabad area and that he had sneaked into J&K 12 days ago. In a videotaped first interrogation on the hilltop where Usman, dressed in a dark blue shirt and brown trousers, was caught, he seemed remarkably unruffled at being captured and smiled as he answered the policemen’s questions.

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They later led him down the hill, a cloth covering his face and his hands bound behind his back. Usman was taken to a hospital and then shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogation. Though Faisalabad is believed to be a stronghold of Maulana Masood Azhar’s Jaish-e-Muhammad, Usman has reportedly told his interrogators that he and his slain accomplice, Momin Khan from Bahawalpore (Pakistan), were associated with the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.

“It’s fun doing this,” he said in the presence of policemen. He was also quoted as saying, “It has been 12 days since I came here. We walked all days in the jungle... I’m from Pakistan and my partner was killed in the firing, but I escaped. I came here to kill Hindus. Had I been killed, it would have been Allah’s doing. There is fun in doing this.”

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When asked how they had travelled to Samruli, the scene of Wednesday’s ambush, 10 km from the garrison town of Udhampur, the headquarters of the Army’s Northern Command, he replied wryly, “Which bus would come here?” Inspector-general of police (Jammu range) Danish Rana said, “He is being interrogated and all relevant questions, including those about the network of terrorists he comes from, their local contacts, the route he had taken, and what he and his accomplice were planning to do after today’s attack, will be put to him.”

The attack comes just weeks before talks between the national security advisers of India and Pakistan and days after three gunmen, dressed in Army uniforms and believed to be Lashkar cadre from Pakistan, opened fire on a bus and then attacked the Dina Nagar police station in Gurdaspur district of neighbouring Punjab, killing seven people, including a senior police officer.

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The two BSF jawans killed in Wednesday’s attack were Shubhendu Roy from West Bengal and Rocky from Haryana. BSF I-G (Jammu Frontier) Rakesh Kumar confirmed 11 BSF jawans were injured in the attack. Mr Rana added, “The terrorists hurled grenades and opened indiscriminate fire on the BSF convoy.”