India seeks US help to identify Night Vision Devices recovered from terrorists

NEW DELHI: India has approached the US to help identify Night Vision Devices (NVD) believed to be meant for American and NATO forces recovered from inflitrating terrorists after recent encounters in Jammu and Kashmir.

Four NVDs as well as a couple of sophisticated binoculars were recovered at four places after the Army had eliminated infiltrating terrorists, official sources said.

Information regarding recoveries was shared by the central security agencies with their US counterparts, who have promised help in the probe. The NVDs, recovered from near the Line of Control in North Kashmir after encounters, were dismantled to ascertain the serial numbers on the lens which were forwarded to the US authorities.

A similar NVD was found during the July 27 Gurdaspur terror attack. The NVD with US government marking was used by the terrorists as telescope fitted on an assault rifle to help them identify their targets in dead of the night.

Seven people including a Superintendent of Police were killed by the three terrorists before they were neutralised by Punjab Police. Upon an inquiry by India, the US had confirmed the NVD belonged to the US army which it had lost in Afghanistan in 2010.

Barring its closest NATO allies, the US does not sell these NVDs to any other country. It is believed that military equipment lost by its soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq are often sold in the open market, including through e-commerce websites.

For closer cooperation on terror-related matters, India and the US have appointed personnel from their respective security agencies as diplomatic staff at each other's Embassies.