Came to India to strike at security forces, Lashkar terrorist tells NIA

Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Zabiullah who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency has said that he entered India to carry out large scale attacks on security forces.

He told the agency during the questioning that he had come into India fully armed in March this year, along with five other LeT cadres to target security forces but before he could indulge in an attack, they were confronted by the forces in which members of his team were killed, the NIA said.

"He managed to escape from encounter site," it said. 20-year-old Zabiullah, a resident of Bosan Road, Mehmood Kote in Multan, Pakistan, said he came "fully armed" in March this year with 22-year-old Darda of Lahore, 26-year-old Shuram of Multan, 20-year-old Faidullah of Gujrawalan, 19-year-old Ummar of Sindh, 19-year-old Kari of Peshawar, Pakistan.

On March 20, during a joint cordon and search operation by the Kupwara police, Army and paramilitary forces, terrorists hiding in the forest fired indiscriminately upon the security forces, the NIA said in a statement. "During the exchange of fire, five terrorists were killed, all unidentified foreign terrorists. Three Army personnel and two Police personnel were martyred and four security personnel were injured," it said.

An FIR was registered in the matter on March 20 which was taken up by the NIA on April 17. On April 6, security forces arrested Zabiullah, who had managed to escape an anti-militancy operation, from Juggiyal village in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir. The arrested militant was produced before the NIA Special Court, Jammu on May 5, and remanded for 10 days NIA custody.