India confronts Pakistan on cross-border terrorism with confessions of arrested LeT terrorist

NEW DELHI: Having caught yet another LeT terrorist alive in Kashmir, India on Tuesday presented Pakistan with more evidence of its continued support to cross border terrorism. Summoning the Pakistan high commissioner, Abdul Basit to South Block, foreign secretary, S Jaishankar issued a demarche that gave details of the LET terrorist caught by Indian security forces.“India strongly protests against the continued infiltration from Pakistan of trained terrorists with instructions to carry out attacks,” he said, according to an MEA statement.
This is the first time in months that India has actually found a terrorist alive. The government has maintained that the explosion of violence in Kashmir has a lot to do with Pakistan’s active support to terrorism there.
The demarche spoke about a terrorist, Bahadur Ali, who has been interrogated by the NIA after he was captured by Indian forces during an operation in northern Kashmir in late July. Bahadur Ali was part of a group whose other members were killed by the forces.
The demarche also included a letter to the high commissioner by Ali. In his letter, details of which were made available to TOI, Ali writes, “I joined Lashkar-e-Toiba and underwent jihadi training. And in the Month of June this year I crossed over to Indian village Handwara, Srinagar, from near Mandakuli Det, with two accomplices Abu Saad and Abu Darda.
While with LeT, I had undergone three phases of training. The first of these was Daura-e-Talba of 15 days in Manshera camp. The second was of 21 days in Lashkar’s Muzaffarabad training camp. The third, Daura-e-Khas, was for three months in Tabbok camp, Muzaffarabad. After we finished these three trainings, members of Lashkar got us across the border into Indian territory.
I request you that I wish to meet my father Mohamed Haneef and my brothers and sisters. I also request you that legal aid be provided to me.”
Following his interrogation, it has emerged that Bahadur Ali also operates under an alias, Abu Saifullah, from Jia Bagga in Raiwind, Lahore. The demarche said forces also recovered weapons and communication equipment from him.
Jaishankar also offered consular access to Bahadur Ali to the Pakistan government, and said the prisoner had requested legal aid from the Pakistan high commissioner. This is a slightly different tack – when India caught Ajmal Kasab, his details were first made available to select intelligence agencies. This time India is laying the information out in the public domain at the start.
While there is no word from Pakistan, it’s unlikely they will avail of the offer for consular access. Not only did they not acknowledge Kasab, Pakistan is yet to claim the bodies of the attackers at Pathankot airbase in January.
India, on the other hand, readily accepted that Kulbhushan Jadhav, former navy officer who was captured by the Pakistanis from Iran, was an Indian national, and has repeatedly asked for consular access to him without any luck.
The Indian move comes days after home minister Rajnath Singh undertook a Saarc visit to Pakistan which turned out to be somewhat controversial, given that the Pakistani authorities barred Indian journalists from covering the event, even as the host, Rajnath’s counterpart, failed to show up at a lunch he had hosted.
In fact, all eyes will be on the upcoming visit to Islamabad by finance minister Arun Jaitley for a similar Saarc meeting, scheduled for August 26. As with Rajnath’s visit, India is keen to show that it is not escalating the already fraught situation with Pakistan, by refusing to engage on multilateral issues, which means Jaitley’s chances of going there are high.
Who is Bahadur Ali aka Abu Saifullah?
* Son of Mohd. Haneef, resident of Village Jia Bagga, Tehsil Raiwind, District Lahore in the State of Punjab, Pakistan, born on December 17, 1995 in the village of Jia Bagga, was arrested by Indian authorities in the State of Jammu & Kashmir on July 25, 2016 together with weapons (AK-47 rifle, live rounds, grenades, grenade launcher, etc.) as also sophisticated communication equipment and other material of Pakistani/international origin.
* Bahadur Ali has confessed to our authorities that after training in Lashkar-e-Toiba camps, he was infiltrated into India. He was thereafter in touch with an ‘operations room’ of LeT, receiving instructions to attack Indian security personnel and carry out other terrorist attacks in India.
* Bahadur Ali, in a letter addressed to the Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi, has requested legal aid and assistance to meet his family.
* India is prepared to grant the Pakistan High Commission consular access to Bahadur Ali.