Udhampur attack: Terrorist Mohammad Naved nabbed from Pakistan's Faisalabad

SRINAGAR | NEW DELHI: Two BSF jawans were killed by two terrorists who attacked their 22-vehicle convoy carrying 300 personnel to Srinagar, on the national highway in Udhampur on Wednesday morning. One of the terrorists was killed in retaliatory fire and the second was nabbed. Two BSF personnel shot in the head were among 13 injured.

The captured terrorist, Mohammed Naved, 20, said he was a resident of Faisalabad, Pakistan. His accomplice Noman, alias Nomi, was from Bhawalpur, Pakistan. Naved tried to take three civilians hostage when he was captured from a school building nearby. Village Defence Committee members played a major role in freeing the hostages and capturing the terrorist.

VDC members participated in the operation along with the Army and CRPF personnel. The terrorists are believed to be members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Naved changed his statements several times, including his name, during interrogation but showed no remorse. He told interrogators that he did this for Allah and “it was fun”.

As per senior Army officials, the two lobbed grenades at one of the buses in the convoy followed by indiscriminate firing. Nomi tried to barge into a bus when jawan Suresh Kumar of the 137 battalion, who though hit by a spray of bullets, shot him dead. “We had no intelligence input about any suspicious movement in the area,” a senior BSF official told ET. As per police sources, the duo had sneaked in through the LoC at Bandipur, near Baramullah, in June, but had no specific target.

“There was an element of surprise in the attack. Preliminary interrogation has revealed that the two came from Pakistan. Even though he is continuously retracting his statements, he seems to be illiterate,” deputy commissioner of Udhampur, SI Choudhary, told ET. Choudhary said that the duo did not carry identity papers.

Naved claimed he and three others cut barbed wires on the LoC and entered India with arms and ammunition before splitting into two teams. Naved’s admissions have punched holes in the Army’s claim that there have been no infiltrations through LoC in 2015.