SRINAGAR: A youth from a border village of Kotli arrested and repatriated in 2017, was one of the two groups of militants who infiltrated early this week. While two of them, accompanying the captured one, returned, the other group comprising two were killed.
Identified as Tabarak Hussain, a resident of village Sabzkot in Kotli on the other side of Poonch, is in custody and under treatment. He was injured in the shootout in which his two colleagues were killed. He was captured alive and injured on August 21.
Offering details, the army sources said in Jammu that soldiers deployed in Jhangar sector of Nowshera sector, had spotted suspicious movement on this side of the LoC. One of the persons, busy cutting the fence, was fired at and injured and was quickly captured. Two others who were accompanying him fled back taking the cover of dense forests.
On August 22, night, “a group of two to three terrorists” tried to infiltrate into Pukharni village of Lam area, falling in the same Nowshehra sector. They quickly landed in the minefield and two of them were killed and the third one returned back possibly injured. The bodies of the two were recovered early morning on Wednesday. Some arms and ammunition was also recovered.
However, what makes the story interesting is the captured Tabarak. He had barged into this side of the LoC and arrested in 2016 along with his brother Haroon Ali. However, on humanitarian grounds, he was repatriated in November 2017. Now he was again arrested, this time found cutting the fence.
His revelations are also interesting. He has told his interrogators that Colonel Yunus Chaudhry of Pakistan intelligence agency had given him (Pakistani) Rs 30,000 “for an attack on an Indian post.” Reports appearing in media quoted an “army note” saying that he was “carrying the 30,000 Pakistani rupees that the colonel gave to him.” The army, reports said, believes that Tabarak was “part of a squad that carried out recces of Indian forward, and got the final go-ahead on August 21”.
