|
Intelligence chief Halder
goes
New Delhi: In what is the bureaucratic casualty following the Mumbai attack, the Government of India tonight appointed Rajiv Mathur as the new director of the Intelligence Bureau. Though Mathur will take over formally on January 1, next year when the present incumbent PC Haldar retires, he has been appointed as the Officer on Special Duty in the IB with immediate effect. Mathur is a 1972-batch Uttar Pradesh cadre IPS officer and at present he is posted as the Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau. Sources said a decision to remove Haldar was in the offing, however he was not sent off with just three weeks to go for his retirement. |
Islamabad, December 8
In a crackdown by security forces in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), senior Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) commander and suspected Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi was arrested along with at least eight other members of the group after a gunbattle.
A total of 15 members of the LeT and its front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawah were arrested following the raid conducted by Pakistani forces yesterday at a camp near Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK, Geo News channel reported.
The arrests took place as international pressure mounted on Pakistan to take action against the banned LeT, seen as the prime suspect in the deadly Mumbai siege that left 183 persons dead. US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice has pressed Pakistan to act quickly.
The army and other security forces backed by helicopters carried out the operation. The troops exchanged fire with the militants for almost three hours. Some of the militants were injured.
There was no official word on the arrests from the Pakistan government or the military. The military spokesman could not be reached for comments.
But LeT founder Hafiz Saeed slammed the raid in the camp operated by his charity saying, “the operation against jihadi organisations in Pakistani Kashmir is unwarranted and we strongly condemn it.” Ajmal Amir Iman, the lone terrorist captured alive by Indian authorities after the Mumbai attacks, had named Lakhwi as one of the LeT commanders who had planned the strike.
The security forces sealed a large LeT complex and a madrassa affiliated to the organisation at Shawai Nullah, 5 km northwest of Muzaffarabad.
Sources said the police in Islamabad had arrested several LeT activists who had set up camps in the federal capital to collect hides of animals slaughtered during the Eid-ul-Azha festival. LeT and Jaamat activists are known to collect the hides, which are later sold to tanneries.
The influential Dawn newspaper had earlier reported that Lakhwi was among more than 20 members of the LeT who were arrested as part of a secretive crackdown on the group that was banned by Pakistan in 2001.
Sources said the security forces first ordered LeT members to surrender but they refused, prompting action by the troops. A military helicopter shelled the LeT camp and the militants too opened fire, the sources said. There were unconfirmed reports that some security personnel were also injured in the operation.
Reports said LeT activists had gone underground to avoid possible arrest. A LeT representative told the NNI news agency that the Pakistan government seemed to be under “tremendous pressure” to take action against his group.
Residents of Shawai Nullah said they had seen the military helicopter hovering over the LeT camp and heard two to three loud explosions. Another person said the helicopter might have been used to airlift persons detained or injured during the operation. The residents also told BBC that the troops blew up buildings at the LeT camp, which had an office, a seminary and a residential area housing about 150 people.
— PTI
