New Delhi: Two residents of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, arrested last week from Jammu and Kashmir’s Uri town for guiding the Jaish-e-Mohammad militants who attacked an army camp killing 18 soldiers, have been sent to 10-day NIA custody and brought here for questioning.
Faisal Hussain Swan and Ahsaan Khurseed, both residents of Muzaffarabad, were produced before a designated court in Jammu which remanded them to custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA). NIA officials said the JeM guides have been brought to Delhi for their further questioning.
In the initial interrogation, they have told NIA investigators that they had facilitated infiltration of the four JeM militants who carried out terror attack at the army camp in Uri on September 18 in which 18 shoulders were killed and 30 others injured.
The two Jaish operatives are being described as a “significant catch” by the security agencies as they are likely to provide crucial details regarding the planning and subsequent execution of the attack. They had earlier identified one of the killed militants as Hafiz Ahmed, also a resident of Muzaffarabad in PoK, from the photographs shown to them.
During the course of investigations the NIA had also established the identity of the two Pakistani handlers, Mohd Kabir Awan and Basharat, both of who are also suspected to be associated with Jaish. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had provided these details of investigations and other some other evidence to Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit whom he had summoned on Tuesday.
Since both accused persons are residents of PoK, they were initially interrogated by the Army also to ascertain whether they had any knowledge regarding the Uri attack. They initially claimed that they had inadvertently crossed over into India but during sustained interrogation admitted having facilitated the infiltration for the Uri attackers and also helped their interrogators identify one of the militants involved in the assault. Investigators said the two were recruited two years ago.
