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srinagar Fidayeen attack
Shinde: Pak numbers in slain terrorists’ diaries
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 14
Under attack from the Opposition over the killing of five CRPF personnel in a suicide attack in Srinagar’s Bemina area yesterday, the government today said in Parliament that the two terrorists involved in the strike were of foreign origin.

Avoiding direct references to Pakistan, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said in a statement in both Houses that the diaries recovered from the slain terrorists bore suspected Pakistani numbers and the skin ointment found in their kit had an Urdu name and was manufactured at 35, Dockyard, a Karachi-based facility of GSK Pakistan Limited. When pressed for clarifications in the Rajya Sabha, Shinde said, “I only said the terrorists were of foreign origin and not Pakistanis.”

After the BJP moved notices for adjournment of question hour in both Houses, Shinde said the terrorists were “fidayeens” as was evident from their “shaven” bodies. He, however, said the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen’s claim to be behind the attack was still under authentication. Shinde said six other CRPF personnel were injured in the encounter, one of them critically. Four civilians who were playing cricket in the ground also suffered injuries in the incident.

“Two unidentified armed terrorists in civilian clothes, carrying ammunition and grenades in hidden bags, entered the playground and mingled with local youth. They took out their gear, lobbed grenades and opened indiscriminate fire on the CRPF men. Armed CRPF officers retaliated,” said Shinde. Fifty CRPF personnel of the 73rd battalion had assembled in Police Public School grounds before their deployment at various places.

The BJP, however, slammed the government for going soft on Pakistan-sponsored terror and failing to prevent strikes. In the Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj questioned the hospitality Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid extended recently to the Pakistan PM at Ajmer Sharif. “You are treating them to lunch and four days later this attack happens. The head of Ajmer shrine did what you could not by boycotting the Pakistan PM for beheading our soldiers,” she said.

Shinde, however, insisted the UPA was “very vigilant and was keeping an eye on POK camps”.

Pak militant held in Srinagar
Majid Jahangir/TNS

Srinagar, March 14
The Jammu and Kashmir Police today arrested a suspected Pakistani militant from old Srinagar. Abu Talib alias Riyaz, a Pakistani national, who is believed to be a part of the module that carried out the fidayeen attack in Bemina yesterday.

Police sources said the militant was nabbed in the Chhattabal area around 6 pm. “He fired three pistol shots but was soon overpowered,” sources said. He is being interrogated.

Union Home Secretary RK Singh said there were intelligence inputs about four militants having sneaked into Srinagar. While two were killed in the fidayeen attack, the hunt is on to catch the others.