Prize catch, perfect for TV - SUJAN DUTTA AND IMRAN AHMED SIDDIQUI

The alleged Pakistani militant who was caught alive in Udhampur,
Jammu, on Wednesday strikes different poses. (PTI pictures)

TT, New Delhi, Aug. 5: A baby-faced “militant” today profiled the lethality of terrorism on Indian television, wearing an amused expression, smiling, mouthing words like “fun” and claiming he was from Pakistan.

The alleged militant was paraded after another had killed two BSF troopers in an attack on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway before being gunned down. The babyfaced suspect fled the scene of attack but was apparently overpowered by members of a village defence council in the middle of what was described as a hostage situation.

Interviewed by journalists before investigators interrogated him, the youth gave three different names — Kasim Khan, Usman and Mohammed Naved — and said he had crossed over to India 12 days back.

“This is God’s work, there is fun in it,” he said in response to a question.

The answers were in a dialect of Punjabi identified with Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

The BSF constables who were killed have been identified as Rocky, from Haryana, and Subhendu Roy, from Bengal.

Since 1989, the army in Kashmir has been either catching or killing militants infiltrating across the Line of Control. But it has rarely played out on national television like this before today’s attack on the BSF convoy early in the morning.

Home ministry sources said the lone militant caught alive had been identified as Mohammed Naved and the one who was killed as Noman alias Nomi.

“Both are Pakistani nationals and had come from Tangmarg in the Kashmir Valley on Tuesday night. They had infiltrated into India through the same route one- and-a-half months ago but later returned to Pakistan,” a ministry official said.

Unlike the militant who was killed, “Mister Babyface-on-TV” wore a shirt and trousers and was barefoot.

According to photographs received from sources in the army, the slain militant was in fatigues, also had a T-shirt on with the word “MARINE” printed on it, had a watch with a big dial on his right wrist, held a Kalashnikov and was in sneakers.

In the photographs, the bearded man’s body is bloodied, has a deep gash on an elbow and lies on a metalled road.

Sources in the army said Naved was among those who attacked the convoy about 15km north of Udhampur. But he was clearly not trained enough to avoid being overpowered. He lost his way trying to flee from the firefight or was misled by villagers he had taken hostage at gunpoint.

The villagers had taken him to a spot where he could find water and overpowered him when the youth, spying commandos of 1 Para closing in on him, became nervous.

Rakesh Kumar Sharma, one of the two men the youth had ordered at gunpoint to escort him to a “place of safety”, recalled how they had seized their chance.

“After trekking about one-and-a-half kilometres, the security forces closed in,” Rakesh said. “The forces had closed all gaps and the militant threatened to kill us. At that point, I and Bi­kramjit (Sharma) pounced on him and overpowered him.”

Villagers later clicked pictures with Naved. “It has been 12 days since I came here,” the seemingly unrepentant Naved said. “We walked all day in the jungle.”

In the interviews to journ­a­lists, Naved said there were ju­st two of them. In different fo­otage, he claims once that he is 20 years old and in another, 16.

In a 2013 analysis, Christine Fair, an American academic who studies South Asia, had shown that Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizbul Mujahideen militants in Jammu and Kashmir had a life expectancy of 21 to 23 years. Most would die or be killed by the time they reached those ages.

Sources said Naved, during preliminary questioning, had told them he was from Faisalabad, also in Punjab province. “His father’s name is Yakub and he has two brothers and a sister. One of his brothers is a lecturer in a university while another has a hosiery business,” a home ministry official said.

He said the slain terrorist was a resident of Bahawalpur. “He was a Lashkar-e-Toiba operative but it is still not clear which terror outfit Naved belongs to. Naved is in the custody of Jammu and Kashmir police,” the official added. 

Last week, three terrorists from Pakistan had attacked a police station in Gurdaspur district of Punjab. The 12-hour battle between the three heavily armed terrorists and security forces, which resembled the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, left ten people dead, including a senior Punjab police officer. The three terrorists were also killed.

“It seems both Naved and Noman were from the same batch of militants that carried out the attack in Gurdaspur,” a ministry official said.

BSF DG D. Pathak rushed to Udhampur in the afternoon. A red alert has been sounded in Delhi following intelligence inputs that one heavily armed terrorist is suspected to be hiding in the capital.

There was no immediate word from Pakistan on India’s claim about the identity of the captured gunman.

Today’s attack comes on the heels of an escalation of ce­a­sefire violations along the bo­rder in Jammu and Kashmir. The army recorded 583 violations last year, while the number has crossed 250 this year.

Additional reporting by Muzaffar Raina