Two PoK youths claim to be part of Jaish fidayeen group that attacked Brigade hqs in Uri

Army hands over both the detainees to NIA; flown to New Delhi; their revelations shared with Pak envoy

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Sep 27: Two youths from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, who were captured by residents of Uri, beaten up severely and handed over to Army on September 21, have revealed during sustained interrogation that they were part of the 6-member fidayeen group of Jaish-e-Mohammad that attacked an infantry brigade headquarters and killed 18 soldiers on September 18. Both of them have been flown to New Delhi on Tuesday after Army handed them over to National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Government of India, in coordination with the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, has assigned investigation of the high profile fidayeen attack, in which more than 20 soldiers were injured in addition to 18 fatal casualties, to NIA.

STATE TIMES learned from top level authoritative sources that Yasin Khursheed s/o Mohammad Khursheed r/o Khiliana Kalan and Faisal Hussain Awan s/o Gul Akbar r/o Patha Jehangir, PoK, both around 20-year-old, were flown to New Delhi hours before Ministry of External Affairs shared their disclosures with Pakistan High Commissioner. Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar summoned High Commissioner Abdul Basit and provided him “proof of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit’s involvement in the Uri fidayeen attack”.

The disclosures obtained during sustained interrogation of the two youths, who initially admitted to being “guides”, have been recorded and documented before the same were communicated to Pakistan. According to sources, residents of a village, close to LoC, got suspicious about the duo’s movement and captured them for questioning. Both have been severely beaten up by the villagers who finally handed them over to Army. Sources said that both the youths had sustained injuries when they had been beaten up by the villagers.

However, independent sources said that the possibility of their having sustained injuries during Army’s third-degree interrogation could not be ruled out.

Sources said that at around 11.30 pm on Monday, 92 Base Hospital officials at headquarters 15 Corps called a lady doctor from CRPF for medical examination and some treatment of the two youths. During their detailed interaction with the female doctor (a resident of Odisha) at a secret location in the rear of Badami Bagh cantonment, both the detainees revealed that they were part of the six-member fidayeen group of Maulana Masood Azhar’s Jaish-e-Mohammad that sneaked into the garrison and carried out the suicide attack.

While as four militants of the group got killed in gunfight with troops, Yasin and Faizal escaped. They are understood to have revealed that the militants sprinkled an inflammable liquid on the barracks before lighting the fire. Surprisingly, the duo disclosed that the group had also carried with them three 8-kg LPG cylinders for the purpose of setting the barracks on fire. They were seized dramatically before they would cross the LoC and return to their villages, both situated close to LoC in PoK.

Yasin and Faizal have identified one of the four militants killed in the Uri fidayeen strike as Hafiz Ahmad of Dharbang, Muzaffarabad, and their handlers as Mohammad Kabir Awan and Basharat.

According to preliminary reports, the duo had been arrested by the Border Security Force and the Army in a joint operation at 'Angoor Post' at Gavalata village in Uri last Saturday when they were trying to infiltrate into India. Now it has become clear that they were captured while returning to PoK after carrying out the attack at the 12^th Infantry Brigade headquarters.

The duo initially claimed that they had inadvertently crossed into India but after sustained interrogation they not only informed the security agencies about the two “guides” who had helped militants infiltrate but also helped them in identifying one of the militants involved in the attack, the sources said.

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[Published in today’s STATE TIMES]