SRINAGAR, July 13: Militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba is planning major violent attacks in the Kashmir, Abu Jundal, one of the arrested alleged handlers of the 2008 Mumbai attackers, has revealed to his interrogators.
Jundal, believed to be “a mine of information” on the Lashkar and its anti-India plans, also told his interrogators that the group was planning to push hundreds of trained gunmen and weapons into Kashmir.
“The group wants to revive militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly make its presence felt in urban areas,” a reliable source privy to his interrogation details was quoted by wire agency IANS.
Jundal, believed to be the highest ranking Indian in the militant outfit, had stayed for some time in Pakistan-administered Kashmir before and after the Mumbai attack and became close to the Kashmiri militant leadership in Muzaffarabad, the source said.
He told his interrogators that the United Jehad Council (UJC), an amalgam of militant groups that operates out of Muzaffarabad, was making elaborate plans to push fresh infiltrators into Jammu and Kashmir through non-traditional routes along the Line of Control (LoC) – which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
Jundal, deported to India from Saudi Arabia last month, has revealed that these groups were planning to enter Kashmir through Poonch and Rajouri in the Jammu region.
“Peace in Kashmir has in particular upset the Lashkar. The Lashkar leadership has asked the UJC commander Syed Salahuddin (who also heads the Hizbul Mujahideen) to pull up its socks,” the source quoted Jundal as saying.
“They (militants) are planning big strikes in Kashmir.”
Sources in Jammu and Kashmir Police told IANS that the information had been shared with them.
Subsequently, security has been beefed up, particularly for the hundreds of thousands of Hindus visiting the Amarnath cave temple near the south Kashmir tourist resort Pahalgam.
Kashmir Police sources said two recent militant strikes in south Kashmir in which a soldier and two policemen were killed may be part of the latest Lashkar strategy.
