ISI, Haqqani network may be behind Jammu attack: Intel

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, April 25

With the killing of two Pashto-speaking foreign terrorists in Jammu encounter on April 22, intelligence agencies suspect that the attack may be a handiwork of the ISI with the help of Haqqani network. Haqqani network mostly operates in eastern Afghanistan and north-western Pakistan, having close ties with the ISI.

ADGP Mukesh Singh had said after the Sunjuwan encounter that an arrested associate of terrorists, Shafiq Ahmed, who kept them at his house in the area, had informed the police that both the ultras spoke Pashto. The presence of Pashtun terrorists in J&K has also rung alarm bells among the Central and state intelligence agencies who are now trying to know about the involvement of the Haqqani network, a dreaded terror group, in pumping terrorists into Jammu.

After the establishment of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, there were apprehensions that the ultras may be diverted to Kashmir by the ISI due to dipping local recruitment in the Valley. Military intelligence sources in the Northern Command, based in Udhampur, informed that there were apprehensions that the terrorists were a part of the Haqqani network as their description fits them exactly into the insurgent group.

Sources further informed that the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad terror groups also had close ties with the Haqqani network. Interestingly, Anas Haqqani, a Taliban leader, had last year said that the group would not meddle in the Kashmir affairs.

Meanwhile, as the security forces had claimed that the two terrorists were picked up from Samba district by a Kashmiri driver in his truck, the BSF today conducted a massive search operation along the border to check if there were tunnels, a senior BSF official said.

Accused in 10-day police custody

• A court has sent three persons, arrested for sheltering and providing logistic support to terrorists killed in Sunjuwan, on 10-day police remand.
• Another man, who “rented out” his premises to one of the accused, is still under detention but not formally arrested.