Pakistan high commissioner Abdul Basit given antecedents of Uri guides, terrorists

NEW DELHI: Pakistan high commissioner Abdul Basit was on Tuesday given the identity of two guides from Pakistan in Indian custody, who led the terrorist gang to the Army camp in Uri. Basit was summoned for the second time in less than a week to be presented with other proof of the cross-border origins of terrorists who attacked the Army camp in Uri that killed 18 soldiers on September 18.

The guides were later apprehended by local villagers and are in Indian custody. The two have been identified as Faizal Hussain Awan (20), son of Gul Akbar, resident of Potha Jahangir, Muzzaffarabad; and Yasin Khurshid (19), son of Mohammed Khurshid, resident of Khiliana Kalan, Muzzaffarabad. Also identified was one of the slain Uri attackers, Hafiz Ahmed, son of Feroz, and resident of Dharbang, Muzaffarabad. Handlers of the slain terrorists were identified as Mohd Kabir Awan and Basharat.

MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup told journalists that Awan deposed to the National Investigation Agency that he and Khurshid guided and facilitated the border crossing of the terrorists that perpetrated the Uri massacre. In his preliminary statement, he identified the slain attacker and revealed details of the two handlers.

The demarche handed over to Basit also said that two infiltration bids took place across the Line of Control on September 20 — in the Naugam sector, opposite Pakistan's Lipa–Naukot sector, and in Uri sector, opposite Pakistan's Chakothi sector — both of which were foiled. Basit was told that in another incident, on September 23, Pakistani national Abdul Qayoom from Sialkot was apprehended in Molu sector and he confessed that he had undergone three weeks' training with LeT and donated substantial funds to Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, its front organization. Basit was told that India was willing to provide consular access to these three individuals.