Rajnath Singh will present Hafiz Saeed proof at Saarc

The interrogation of Pakistani militant Bahadur Ali of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba has given India fresh and credible evidence of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed’s involvement in promoting terror activities in the Kashmir Valley.

Bahadur Ali, alias Saifullah, a resident of Jahama village in Raiwind area, near Lahore, was arrested from Handwara in north Kashmir on July 25. He was taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency and brought to Delhi where he is being interrogated by a joint team of intelligence agencies at an undisclosed safe house.

Sources said Bahadur Ali revealed during interrogation that Hafiz Saeed had visited their training camp in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, where he had asked militants to carry out major terror strikes in Kashmir. Bahadur Ali also disclosed that he underwent a 21-day training programme, called Daura-e-Aam, at the LeT camp which Saeed, whom he referred to as “Chacha”, visited at least twice to “motivate” militants undergoing training.

The Pakistani militant also elaborated on how Hafiz Saeed in his hate speeches claimed the Indian state and its security forces had launched an offensive against the people of Kashmir. “Hafiz Saeed told us to infiltrate into the Kashmir Valley and specifically target the security forces with even suicide (fidayeen) attacks,” Bahadur Ali disclosed during custodial interrogation.

Sources claimed that India could use this fresh evidence to nail Pakistan during the Saarc home and interior ministers conference in Islamabad on August 3. Pakistan has maintained that its soil is not used to promote terror activities in India. Terror is one of the main issues to be discussed during the meeting as apart from India, countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and the Maldives also face similar problems.

Bangladesh witnessed two major attacks recently, Nepal has emerged as a major centre for the smuggling of fake currency into India, and the Maldives is facing a major threat from Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Though Saarc is primarily a multilateral forum, India could point out Pakistan’s role in encouraging terror in Kashmir during delegation-level talks involving senior officials.

Ajmal Kasab, the only Pakistani militant taken alive in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, had also referred to Hafiz Saeed as “Chacha”’ during questioning.

Bahadur Ali claimed he was specially trained at the PoK terror camp to operate GPS sets and read maps of the Kashmir Valley. The Pakistani militant claimed he had been hiding in the thick forests of Handwara region, waiting for some of his associates to cross over to launch terror operations against security forces, but was caught. The NIA, which has got custody of Bahadur Ali for five days, could subject him to narco-analysis and lie-detector tests as well.

Minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju has already described Bahadur Ali as a “very good catch”, saying the arrest would lead to many successes. The minister also said that the arrested militant would be a “big handle for us”.

“Bahadur Ali has claimed that the recent increase in infiltration activities from across the border is also due to Hafiz Saeed’s initiatives as he has been motivating militants to infiltrate into India in large numbers,” a senior intelligence official said.