Srinagar: A man, wearing a bulletproof jacket, was arrested close to the April 22 terror attack site in Pahalgam on Tuesday. According to reports, security forces picked him up from close to the Baisaran meadows where 26 innocents, most of them tourists from across the country, were gunned down by terrorists on that fateful day.
After several rounds of questioning, the man, identified as Ahmed Bilal, was handed over to the police. According to an official, the gave evasive and incoherent replies to questions. Security agencies are keen to know from where he obtained the bulletproof jacket. He was apparently asked this question, but there was no satisfactory reply.
“The police will now send him for medical tests to ascertain whether he is suffering from some mental disease. What we want to know is where he came from and what he was doing in that area. Of course, the source of the bulletproof jacket has to be known,” the official said.
Meanwhile, a Pakistani national was arrested along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on Tuesday. This came a day after a terrorist hideout was unearthed in a forested area of that district. The man, in his 20s, had apparently crossed over the LOC before being nabbed by the Indian Army.
He is the third Pakistani to be arrested in India in as many days. On Monday, a Pakistani national, identified as Muhammad Ajmal (25), was arrested by the Border Security Force (BSF) close to the International Border in Punjab. He is a resident of a village in Gujranwala, Pakistan.
Officials said that the BSF troops of Border Outpost Sahapur, a flanking BOP of Dariya Mansoor, detected movement close to the Falku Nala, ahead of the border fence and 250 metres inside Indian territory. The troops, along with a Quick Reaction Team (QRT) apprehended Ajmal from some bushes.
On Sunday, a Pakistani Ranger was arrested after he crossed the International Border in the Sri Ganganagar area of Rajasthan. The man was in uniform but had no weapons on him.