New Delhi: In a breakthrough in the investigation into the attack on the Uri Army camp, the security forces have apprehended two Pakistani nationals, both operatives of Jaish-e-Mohammed, who had helped the four-member terror module involved in killing 18 Army personnel infiltrate into India.
The duo, identified as Faizal Hussain Awan and Ahasan Khursheed, are now being interrogated for further details by a team of multiple agencies. Awan, 20, is the son of Gul Akbar and a resident Potha Jahangir in Muzaffarabad, while Khursheed, 19, is the son of Mohammed Khurshid, a resident of Khiliana Kalan, Muzaffarabad. The details were shared with Pakistan’s high commissioner Abdul Basit, who was summoned by foreign secretary S. Jaishankar and issued a demarche.
Second demarche in a week
For the second time in less than ten days, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar on Tuesday issued a demarche to Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit over Uri attack and confronted him with proof of “cross-border origins” of the terror strike in which 18 jawans were killed.
During the earlier summoning on September 21, Jaishankar had also shown Basit the content of GPS recovered from the bodies of terrorists with coordinates that indicate the point and time of infiltration across the LoC and the subsequent route to the terror attack site and grenades with Pakistani markings as evidence of Pakistan’s role.
“Following the terrorist attack on the Uri garrison of the Indian Army on 18 September 2016, India had taken up with Pakistan the issue of honouring its January 2004 commitment not to allow its soil or territory under its control to be used for terrorism against India,” Swarup added.
Tuesday’s summoning comes amidst India weighing the options to hit back at Pakistan in the aftermath of the Uri attack. After a review of Indus Water Treaty (IWT), the government is also planning to review the MFN status granted by it, unilaterally, to Pakistan.
During the review of IWT, the government decided to take a number of steps including to “exploit to the maximum” the water of Pakistan-controlled rivers, including Jhelum, as per the water sharing pact and suspension of IWT Commission meeting till the atmosphere was “free of terror”.
