J&K police say Amarnath case cracked, 3 held

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir police on Sunday said the July 10 attack on Amarnath pilgrims was carried out by four Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants, including three Pakistanis, and there was a “criminal conspiracy” behind it.

It made the disclosure after arresting the Pakistan-based terror outfit’s three “over-ground workers (OGWs)”, who allegedly provided logistic support to the four attackers.

Incidentally, the LeT had condemned the attack, saying Islam does not allow violence against any faith. Inspector general of police (Kashmir range) Muneer Khan told media in Anantnag that apart from the three Pakistanis, a Kashmiri militant too was involved in the attack that left eight pilgrims dead.

Khan identified the four as Ismail, Maviya, Furqan of Pakistan and Yawar Bashir, a local.

Yawar, according to the police, had joined the outfit in February after snatching a weapon from security forces. Prior to that, he was a student at a religious seminary in Srinagar.

Claiming that police have cracked the case in less than a month, Khan said it was “purely a terrorist attack” aimed at creating fear. “The militants used code word ‘Bilal’ for a CRPF vehicle and ‘Shaukat’ for the bus carrying the pilgrims,” Khan said, debunking the theory that the civilian vehicle was caught in the cross fire and was not the actual target of the militants.

The police officer claimed the group initially planned the attack on July 9. It wanted to target either a CRPF or a civilian vehicle carrying pilgrims and had code words for both.