A day after India issued a strong demarche to Pakistan over continued support to terror groups that are fuelling unrest in Jammu & Kashmir, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday shared leads gathered during interrogation of captured Pakistani terrorist Bahadur Ali, alias Saifullah. Ali’s interrogation has revealed that Pakistan Army regulars are involved in training terror recruits before launching them into India and Afghanistan.
The agency also showed a video of the questioning of the terrorist who has confessed to the involvement of Pakistani State agencies in fanning unrest in the Valley, especially by targeting security forces. This is for the first time that NIA has shown a video statement of a captured terrorist. Pakistan had earlier this year shown a video statement of Kulbhushan Yadav, an Indian national arrested in Balochistan in March over charges of
spying for the Indian Intelligence agency.
From his questioning, the agency has gathered that the new tactic of the Pakistan-based terror group lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) is to infiltrate its cadre into J&K. The terrorists mix up with the crowds and throw hand grenades on the security forces besides targeting their camps. lashkar commander from Muzaffarabad controls the movement of terrorists in India.
The NIA is investigating the role of leT and gathering evidence that can withstand international judicial scrutiny. Ali was directed from a leT camp in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) via Japanese i-com radio sets which were modified to cover a vast range. The terrorists were communicating with ‘Alpha-3’ on these radio sets.
Ali, 21, disclosed that he is a part of a big group of terrorists who have been infiltrated into India by leT to carry out terror attacks. On his inputs, four heavily armed terrorists were neutralised on July 26 at Monibalin North Kashmir by the security forces. Six wireless sets, four AK-47 rifles, four compasses, maps, matrix sheets, grenades and other military equipment were recovered from the four killed terrorists.
“Since the onset of summer in 2016, the leT, with the help of Pakistani forces deployed on the border, has been infiltrating heavily armed trained terrorists into India with the direction to mix with the local people and create disturbance and attack police and security forces,” NIA Inspector General Sanjeev Singh told reporters.
Singh said the arrested lashkar terrorist had been promised cover fire by Pakistani forces when he attempted to infiltrate into northern Kashmir. “Highly technically qualified people have done the modification of the radio set and also trained these militants including Bahadur Ali,” Singh said.
About the persons who could be manning ‘Alpha-3’, Singh said it was not possible for a terror group or ordinary people to have such a communication set up which covers a wide range of area and can hack into Defence networks.
According to Bahadur Ali’s confession and other available evidence, control centre Alpha-3 is a fixed communication centre, established at a high altitude peak in POK. Once the terrorists are inside the Indian territory, Alpha-3 (the leT control room) guides, directs and controls their operations. Whenever required, Alpha-3 arranges tactical and material support through previously identified contacts. The in-charge of the control centre at Muzaffarabad whom Bahadur Ali had also met before infiltrating into India was a man named Waleed, the agency added.
During communications with Bahadur Ali, Alpha-3 told that the leT cadre had been successful in fuelling large scale agitation in Kashmir.
He has told his interrogators that there are 30 to 50 trainees at any time in each course run by leT, which runs throughout the year. At the training camps of leT, there were trainees from different parts of Pakistan including the Pushto speaking trainees from the area bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. After training, the Pushto speaking trainees are sent to Afghanistan for jehad.
Ali also said that the Ghaibana Namaz-e-Janaza (Namaz-e-Janaza in absentia), of Pakistani leT cadres, who die in India while waging Jehad, is performed in Pakistan. He said that he had participated in the Ghaibana Namaz-e-Janaza of the leT Commander of South Kashmir Abu Qasim, who died in Kashmir in October 2015. This was led by leT founder Hafiz Sayeed.
He further revealed that his group of terrorists was launched after being staged forward at their Dett (detachment) near the line of Control. Ali was launched from Mandakuli Dett whose commander was Abu Haider.
Bahadur Ali said that a few Pakistan Army officers in civilian clothes visited the Dett and briefed them and checked their preparedness. Ali also said that officers were referred as Major sahib and Captain sahib. “This corroborates the statement made by Md Naveed, another Pakistani national, who was arrested in the BSF convoy attack at Udhampur in August 2015,” the NIA said.