Twist to J&K unrest: NIA points to LeT

New Delhi, August 10: In a new twist to the turmoil in Kashmir, the NIA today claimed it was being orchestrated by Pakistan-based LeT and that it was gathering further evidence of the terror group’s role in fuelling the unrest, triggered by the encounter killing of a militant leader. Armed with a confessional video of a captured LeT militant, Inspector General of NIA Sanjeev Singh told reporters that since the summer this year, the banned outfit, with the “help of Pakistani forces deployed on the border”, pushed heavily armed terrorists into India with the direction to mix with the local people, create disturbance, and attack police and security forces. The video shows 21-year-old Bahadur Ali, a resident of Raiwind in Lahore, spilling beans about LeT’s role in the disturbances. He is also shown speaking about the LeT’s sophisticated communication network and assistance rendered to it by the Pakistani army. Ali, who was arrested on July 25 this year from Yahama village in Handwara in North Kashmir, was in one of the groups allegedly instructed to take advantage of the current situation and throw grenades at the security forces by mixing with the protesters. “During communications with Ali, Alpha-3 (a communication centre in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir) told that the LeT cadres had been successful in fuelling large-scale agitation in Kashmir after Eid subsequent to the death of Burhan Wani.“Further investigation is continuing on the disclosure of Bahadur Ali regarding his role in the present unrest in Kashmir,” Singh said. The anti-terror probe agency also said it is gathering further evidence regarding the role of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba in the ongoing turbulence in the Valley for the last 33 days. The National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) comments came a day after India handed over a “strong demarche” to Pakistan over its continued support to cross-border terrorism in India. NIA also showed to the media a video of Ali alias Saifullah, a Punjabi-speaking man, talking about his family, the time he spent in the terror outfit and his crossing over to the Indian side of the border. Ali told his interrogators that he was informed by his handlers from a control room code-named ‘Alpha-3’, believed to located at a high altitude somewhere in PoK, about the unrest in the Valley following the killing of Burhan Wani, a Hizbul Mujahideen militant on July 8. His handlers from the control room asked him to throw grenades at the security forces and also informed him that other cadres of the terror group had managed to sneak into the Valley, mingled with protesters and were fuelling tension in the Valley. This is for the first time that NIA has shown a video statement of a captured militant. Pakistan had earlier this year shown a video statement of Kulbhushan Yadav, an Indian national arrested in Balochistan in March over charges of spying for the Indian intelligence agencies. Integrate minds and hearts of ‘integral part’ Kashmir: Azad Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not speaking in parliament about the month-long deadly unrest in the Kashmir Valley and urged the government to integrate hearts and minds of people of the “integral part of India” to solve problems there. Azad initiated a debate in the Rajya Sabha over Kashmir that came after over a month of unrest which has left more than 55 people dead and thousands injured in the valley. The Leader of Opposition criticized Modi’s absence from the house during the sensitive debate, saying “the Prime Minister is so close, yet so far”. “The Prime Minister reaches the parliament (complex) everyday at 10 a.m. He stays in his (parliament) office till 6 p.m. His room is barely a minute and a half from the Rajya Sabha,” Azad said. The Congress leader also lashed out at Modi for speaking on Kashmir at a rally in Madhya Pradesh and not in parliament, a day after the Prime Minister appealed for peace in the restive valley. Azad expressed concern over the violence in Kashmir but stressed the government should endeavour to win hearts and minds of the valley people and stop using force, including pellet guns, against protesters. “We always say Kashmir is an integral part of India. But integral part should not be on paper only. There should be integration of minds and hearts,” Azad said. “Kashmir has had curfew for over 30 days. Many have been killed. Thousands are injured,” Azad said. “If something happens in Africa, you (Modi) tweet, Pakistan is an enemy nation, still you speak when something happens there. It is good to show sympathy with all. But the crown of India (Kashmir) is burning. You must have felt the heat on your head, if not the heart.” He asked the government not to see the valley as a mere law and order problem and called for an all-party meeting to discuss the issue. He also asked for a delegation to be sent to Kashmir to find a political solution to problems of the people there. “Kashmir is a complex issue. Politics comes first, economics second, employment after that. If we talk about electricity, roads and water, and not about politics, it will be wrong.” A BJP MP from the state, Shamsher Singh Manhas, participating in the debate, was aghast over “everyone is speaking about Kashmir and not Jammu”. “Jammu and Kashmir is not about Kashmir only. It is Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh that make the state,” Manhas said. He said Jammu, which shares some 500 km of border with Pakistan, also had its share of problems. “The region has 55 percent of population in the state. Some seven lakh educated youth are employed. They could have also picked the gun. They could have also shouted for freedom,” he said, adding the people in Jammu “have always believed in democracy”. But in the Kashmir Valley, “it is a battle between nationalism and separatism“. “People in Kashmir are following separatist dictates,” he said.