New Delhi, September 27: For the second time in less than 10 days, India's Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Tuesday issued a demarche to Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit over Uri attack and confronted him with proof of “cross-border origins” of the terror strike in which 18 jawans were killed.
The Foreign Secretary called in Basit and told him that the preliminary interrogation reveals identity of one of the slain Uri attackers as Hafiz Ahmed, son of Feroz and a resident of Dharbang, Muzaffarabad, and also gives details of Pakistan-based handlers, MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.
“Local villagers in the Uri sector apprehended on September 21 and handed over to Indian security forces two individuals from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir who have acted as guides for terrorists and helped them infiltrate across the Line of Control (LoC).
“Their particulars are: Yasin Khurshid (19), s/o Mohammed Khurshid and a resident of Khiliana Kalan in Muzzaffarabad, and Faizal Hussain Awan (20), s/o Gul Akbar and from Potha Jahangir, also in Muzzaffarabad,” Basit was told.
The NIA has taken custody of the duo arrested in its probe in the attack.
During his interrogation, Awan has deposed to the NIA that they had “guided and facilitated” the border crossing of the group that perpetrated the September 18 Uri massacre, the Foreign Secretary told him.
In another incident on September 23, 2016, one Pakistani national, Abdul Qayoom, resident of Sialkot, was apprehended in Molu sector opposite Pakistan's Sialkot sector and has confessed to undergoing three weeks of training with the terrorist group LeT and donating substantial funds to Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, their front organisation, Basit was conveyed.
“We are willing to provide the Pakistan High Commission consular access to these three individuals apprehended in connection with terrorist attacks in India,” the Foreign Secretary told the Pakistani envoy.
Basit was also told that these apprehensions and subsequent interrogation underline the cross-border infiltration that had been the subject of their previous discussion.
“We would once again strongly urge the Government of Pakistan to take seriously its commitment not to allow terrorist attacks against India from its soil and territory under its control. Continuing cross-border terrorist attacks from Pakistan against India are unacceptable,” Jaishankar asserted.
This is the second time since the attack on September 18 that the Pakistani envoy has been summoned over the terror strike which India maintains was carried out by Pakistan-based terror groups.
New Delhi has already offered to provide Pakistan with fingerprints and DNA samples of terrorists killed in Uri and Poonch, if that country wished to investigate these cross-border attacks. — Agencies
