Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Nov 8: Jatti border on Bihar-Kathmandu route has been discovered as new track being used by the militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen to enter into India and reach Jammu and Kashmir. Three militants had used the border to enter the State only last week.
Police sources told the Excelsior that Lashkar militant Showkat Ali alias Walid son of Mohammad Sharief, a resident of Pangai, Thanna Mandi in Rajouri district, who was arrested by police on Tuesday along with his PoK wife and two children, has reportedly disclosed during interrogation that he along with two militants from Kashmir—Zakir Ahmad and Mohammad Hamid—had crossed into India from Jatti border on Kathmandu-Patna route in Bihar last week from Nepal.
He disclosed that Zakir was also accompanied by his PoK wife and children and Hamid was alone. All three militants boarded two trains to reach Jammu from where Walid reached Rajouri while the Kashmiri militants had left for Srinagar. Zakir and Hamid were also LeT activists.
Rajouri police have sounded their counterparts in Srinagar on the disclosures of Walid about the movement of two Lashkar militants to the Kashmir valley.
Walid has reportedly told police that 70 to 80 militants from different parts of Jammu and Kashmir, all of whom had married Pakistani or PoK girls, were making desperate attempts to procure Nepal visa to reach Kathmandu and then enter India on way to the State.
All these militants were now doing manual job to run their livelihood and arrange money for visa and air tickets to reach Kathmandu, sources said, adding that though Walid claimed that all of them have shunned militancy, their credentials remained doubtful as they were trained in Murid Ke and other training camps.
Sources said some of the militants, especially those who have married Pakistani and PoK girls, wanted to return to their homes under Rehabilitation Policy but were finding it difficult to take four identified routes (under the Policy) including Poonch-Rawlakote, Uri-Muzaffarabad (both in Jammu and Kashmir), Wagah border in Amritsar district of Punjab and Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in New Delhi.
Pakistan Army and other security agencies were not allowing the militants to take these routes, sources said.
Meanwhile, police have sent both Showkat Ali alias Walid and his PoK wife Hameeda Kousar to Joint Interrogation Centre (JIC), Jammu for sustained questioning to ascertain their links in militancy. Walid had crossed over to PoK in 2003 when he was just 15 years old and joined the LeT outfit.
Sources said police authorities would shortly sound their counterparts in Patna to plug the infiltration route of militants at Jatti border on Kathmandu-Patna track.
Earlier, the militants had been entering into India from Gorakhpur border in Uttar Pradesh from Nepal and then reaching Jammu by train on way to different destinations, sources said, adding that the militants were crossing the border posing as Kashmiri businessmen.
Walid said the passport and visas, which he had managed through some touts for reaching Kathmandu from Nepal, was taken by one person named Mohammad Yunus at Kathmandu and torn off. Yunus had arranged travel of Walid and two other militants with their families to Patna from Jatti border.
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