Once again, India attack planned in PoK camps

Security agencies have been able to identify Hafiz Saeed's LeT as the group behind the CRPF camp attack. This comes after the arrest of suspected Lashkar terrorist Talha Zarar and trans-border courier-cum-double agent Bashir Ahmed Mir alias Haroon. Shishir Gupta reports. Terror trail | Crumbling confidence

Security agencies have been able to identify Hafiz Saeed's Lashkar-e-Taiba as the group behind the March 13 CRPF camp attack. This comes after the arrest of suspected Lashkar terrorist Talha Zarar and trans-border courier-cum-double agent Bashir Ahmed Mir alias Haroon.

Mir, who was a double agent providing information to intelligence agencies on both sides of the border, was arrested after his number was found on the sim card recovered from one of the killed militants.

Confirming that it was a Lashkar attack the Director General of Police, Ashok Prasad told Hindustan Times, "The attack was carried out by LeT with logistic support from locals but no local was involved in the attack and both the militants killed were Pakistani nationals''.

According to police sources Bashir had provided logistic support to the group and managed to accompany the militants to the CRPF camp in Bemina, in the heart of Srinagar.

Talha Zarar, son of a farm worker from Multan who got his terror training at LeT's Bajri camp in PoK, identified the two fidayeen attackers as Haider and Saif; residents of Sahiwal and Dera Ghazi Khan in Pakistan.

Official sources said Zarar had crossed over from Pakistan with weapons this January with the help of Mir and had been hiding in Uri sector. Mir later helped Haider and Saif cross the Line of Control (LoC) on March 3. A week later the group came to Srinagar, with weapons, and conducted reconnaissance of the school playground and CRPF picket the next day.

On the fateful day, Mir and Zarar came along with the two fidayeen to Bemina and entered the school playground through a gap in the wired fence. They had concealed their weapons in cricket kit bags. While Mir and Zarar left the spot immediately, Haider and Saif launched an attack on the jawans.

Although there were more than 50 unarmed CRPF personnel at the spot at the time of the attack, the two fidayeen used under barrel rocket launcher but the rockets fortunately did not explode. "The attack was bit amateurish as had the fidayeen used AK rifles and launched grenades, the casualty figure would have been much more" said a senior police official.

(With inputs from Toufiq Rasheed in Srinagar)