Pak posters claim LeT was behind Uri attack

Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the last month’s attack in Kashmir’s Uri by deciding to offer funeral prayers in absentia for one of its terrorists.

The claim comes after Pakistan’s consistent denial that no group operating from its territory had a role in the attack, in which 19 Indian soldiers had died. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently said that the terror attack could be the result of a “reaction” of the people to the situation in Kashmir as he attacked India for blaming Pakistan without evidence.

LeT members led by Jammat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed plan to offer funeral in absentia for Muhammad Anas alias Abu Siraqa who they said was part of the group that attacked an Army base. JuD is a front for LeT, the terror outfit behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks masterminded by Saeed. The funeral was held at Gujranwala in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Posters featuring Saeed were allegedly placed this week inviting people to attend the funeral. The posters also made a claim that the LeT terrorists had actually killed 177 Indian soldiers. Pakistan banned LeT in 2002 after the December 2001 attack on Indian Parliament, but it continues to operate as JuD.

Indian investigators had found the four dead terrorists involved in the Uri attack carried grenades and food with Pakistani markings. After the attack India conducted surgical strikes against terror launch pads across the LoC. The nuclear-armed neighbours have been trading gunfire along the border amid heightened tensions.

Saeed had also led a gathering in offering funeral prayers for Ajmal Kasab after the lone surviving terrorist involved in the Mumbai attacks was hanged in 2012. Kasab was part of a team of LeT terrorists who killed 166 people during three days of carnage in 2008.