In her address at the United Nations General Assembly, Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday mentioned the name of alleged LeT terrorist Bahadur Ali, who was arrested in Kashmir two months ago, as a living proof of cross-border terrorism from Pakistan.
“Bahadur Ali is a terrorist in our custody, whose confession is a living proof of Pakistan’s complicity in cross-border terror. But when confronted with such evidence, Pakistan remains in denial. It persists in the belief that such attacks will enable it to obtain the territory it covets,” said Ms. Swaraj.
Ali, a resident of Lahore, was arrested by the local police in North Kashmir’s Kupwara following a tip-off from locals on July 25.
In an unprecedented move, the National Investigation Agency had last month released a videographed “confession” of the Pakistani national to prove that terror camps were being run in Pakistan and that he had been sent to Kashmir to foment unrest.
Based on Ali’s statement, the NIA said LeT had been sending its cadres with the help of Pakistani security forces to fuel large-scale agitation in Kashmir.
During interrogation, Ali purportedly told the agency that, to take advantage of the unrest in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani, he and other terrorists had been instructed to mix with protesting crowds and lob grenades on Indian security forces.
The NIA said the weapons and equipment, like GPS devices, seized from the accused terrorist indicated involvement of military experts. Before he infiltrated into India, some Pakistani army men in civvies — addressed by senior LeT cadres as major/captain sahib — had met him and other terrorists.
When the terrorists were crossing the barbed-wire fencing in June, their guide had got an assurance that there would be retaliatory firing by Pakistani security guards in case Indian security forces attempted to stop them.
“This corroborates the statement made by Naveed, another Pakistani national arrested in the BSF convoy attack at Udhampur in August 2015. Evidence reveals that there is an operations room run by one Waleed in Muzaffarabad from where the movement of terrorists is controlled,” an NIA officer had said.