Four held for helping Pakistani terrorist

Srinagar, Aug 8 Four accomplices of a Pakistani terrorist captured after the August 5 Udhampur terror attack were arrested from the Kashmir Valley on Saturday, an official said.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) made the arrests after Usman alias Qasim Khan was brought to the valley to identify those who helped him reach Udhampur where he was caught. 

Usman, a member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group, was brought to the valley from Jammu region by road.

"The NIA today arrested four people from Pulwama district after Usman identified them," a police officer told IANS here.

"The NIA took Usman to Pulwama and Kulgam districts following disclosures by him. More arrests are likely to take place following the leads given by the accused," he said.

The arrested people are Fayaz Ahmed Wani and Javed Ahmed Wani - both brothers - Md Altaf Wani and Javed Ahmed Parray. All are rasidents of Pulwama district. 

Fayaz Ahmed Wani and Javed Ahmed Wani were working as carpenters for a contractor in the IAF station in Awantipora while Md Altaf Wani and Parray were a salesman and a driver respactively.

Intelligence sources said the arrested people were part of a LeT sleeper cell in the Kashmir Valley.

In intelligence parlance, sleeper cells are members of a terrorist group who lie low and do not carry out any terror attacks unless ordered to do so by their handlers.

Pakistani terrorist Usman, from Faisalabad, was overpowered by villagers after he and a fellow Pakistani terrorist shot dead two Border Security Force (BSF) troopers on the Jammu-Srinagar highway in Udhampur district.

The captured Pakistani is now in the custody of the NIA.

While NIA officials reached here on Friday from Delhi, Usman has been brought to establish the route he used to reach Udhampur and to identify accomplices who facilitated his passage to Udhampur.

The NIA is also trying to know more about the larger LeT network in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in India.