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| Security personnel take positions during the gunfight in Srinagar on Wednesday |
Srinagar, March 15: The fidayeen attack on Wednesday was carried out by a militant outfit affiliated to the Paksitan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba, preliminary investigations and the grilling of two arrested suspects have revealed.
Police sources said a group of five fidayeen had crossed over to this side from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the Uri sector a month back, only days after Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was executed, to avenge his death.
Two of them reportedly returned and the remaining three were deputed to carry out the fidayeen attack.
The details emerged during the questioning of Pakistani militant Zubair alias Riyaz alias Abu Talha, who was arrested yesterday, and Bashir Ahmed, a resident of Uri who was picked up last night.
The fidayeen were received in Uri by Bashir, a former militant who later worked as a source for intelligence agencies.
Sources privy to the investigation said Bashir arranged their travel separately to Tangmarg in north Kashmir, where they met on March 11.
On Wednesday, two fidayeen disguised as cricketers were dropped near the school while the third militant, Zubair, was shifted by the handlers to an adjoining locality from he was arrested. The attack — the first in Srinagar in three years — at a police public school had left five CRPF men dead and others injured. The two fidayeen were also killed.
A source said a daily wage earner in a government department helped the militants do a recce of the police school in Srinagar and a manhunt is on to catch him.
Zubair has told the police that he is a resident of Multan in Pakistan and had undergone three months’ training in a militant camp across the Line of Control, run by Lashkar commander Saif ur Rahman.
While officials admit to have made some arrests, they are tight-lipped about the investigations.
Homegrown militant group Hizbul Mujahideen had claimed responsibility for the attack, although the police believed it was a handiwork of the Lashkar.
The militants based in Pakistan had vowed to avenge Afzal’s execution by carrying out deadly attacks.
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