Hunt on for businessman who helped Udhampur terrorists

Srinagar, Aug 10: A hunt has been launched for a businessman who is alleged to have paid money to Mohammed Naved Yakub, a Pakistani militant who was caught alive last week after the Udhampur terror strike in which two BSF personnel were killed.

Facing persistent questioning by a host of interrogators, Naved has now told them he has shared all information available with him and that there was nothing more.

"Mere kol jitna bhi tha, mein dus ditta. Haur mere kol kuch na hai, mainu tang na karo (I have shared whatever I knew. I don't know anything beyond this. Please stop asking me again and again)," Naved reportedly told his interrogators today when he was being questioned again about the route he took for infiltration.

The language spoken by him is generally used in Faisalabad and Sialkot areas of Pakistan, his interrogators said. Naved was taken to Jammu today and produced before a special NIA court for further remand.

Meanwhile, based on information provided by him, police and central security agencies have launched a manhunt for a businessman who is alleged to have paid him and Mohammed Noman alias Momin Rs five lakh for sharing it with other Lashkar-e-Taiba cadre.

The businessman, who reportedly owns a shop in uptown Srinagar, had provided the money to the Naved and his handlers to run LeT network in Kashmir and to carry out terror strikes.

So far 11 people have been rounded up by the police based on information provided by Naved during his interrogation and all of them are being questioned, the sources said.

Naved's interrogators said he was changing statements frequently and had given four different accounts of the route he and his accomplices took to infiltrate India.

After undergoing two modules of training with LeT, Naved is perceived to be a hardened militant who is trying to confuse his interrogators, a tactic apparently aimed at buying time for his other accomplices in the terror network to slip away.

He had undergone two training modules--'Daur-e-Aam' and 'Daura-e-Khas'.

While the first module teaches LeT cadre physical fitness, mountaineering and use of small arms, in the second they are trained in using assault rifles and manufacture of small explosives.

A case under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Arms Act and various sections of Indian Penal Code has been registered against Naved, who has claimed he hails from Faisalabad in Pakistan.

His accomplice, identified by him as Noman alias Momin, was killed in retaliatory firing by BSF during the terror attack.

The NIA team will also examine the BSF personnel, who were in the convoy that had come under attack, and local villagers who captured the armed terrorist, sources said.

PTI