Name of Pak-based handler surfaces in Kathua ambush

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, July 12

Investigation agencies have zeroed in on a Pakistan-based terrorist, who is suspected to be behind the attack on an Army convoy in the Badnota area of Billawar in Kathua on July 8.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is assisting the J&K Police and the State Investigation Agency (SIA) on the case. It has been learnt that the attack was part of a sinister design of terrorist Habibullah Malik, also known as Sajid Jutt, who is a resident of Kasur in Pakistan.

He was also involved in previous ambushes on Army vehicles that took place in Poonch district in the past one year. He coordinated these attacks while sitting in Pakistan, said sources.

The Union Home Ministry had already designated Sajid as a terrorist in 2022. “He is believed to be a key handler of attacks on Army vehicles in Poonch since April last year. There is a striking similarity in the pattern of the attacks. Sajid is known for his involvement in these attacks, due to which intelligence officials believe that he is the one behind Billawar attack too,” said sources in Intelligence.

Sajid was born in 1982 in Kasur and is a terrorist of Lashkar-e-Toiba.

The investigation agencies have also found similarity in the ammunition used in the previous attacks on Army vehicles and the one that took place in Billawar. NIA sleuths visited the site on Tuesday and collected samples from there, including bullet casing and grenade splinters.

Sources in the NIA said that while bullet casing of M4 carbine and AK-47 with steel coating were found at the site, splinters of grenade indicated they were of Chinese origin. Ultras operating in Jammu division and taking part in ambushes have been using Chinese grenades. Such explosives have also been recovered from slain ultras after encounters across J&K.

Steel bullets, which easily pierce through the Army vehicles, have also been used by ultras in three similar ambushes in Poonch district. It is believed that M4 carbines fell into the hands of terrorists after NATO forces left Afghanistan in 2021, leaving behind a major haul of arms.

Ultras tried to mutilate bodies

It has been reliably learnt that the group of terrorists who attacked the Army convoy in Billawar also tried to mutilate the bodies of the deceased soldiers. However, retaliation by the injured soldiers forced the ultras to retreat into the forest before reinforcement could reach the spot.