The Hindu : National : Lashkar commander killed, plot to kill leaders unearthed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 15, 2004

National

National

Lashkar commander killed, plot to kill leaders unearthed

By Shujaat Bukhari

The body of the Lashkar-e-Taiba commander, Abu-Qashi, at the Army camp in Srinagar on Wednesday. — Photo Nissar Ahmad

SRINAGAR, APRIL 14. The Army today claimed to have scuttled a plot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba to target senior politicians in and outside the Jammu and Kashmir, ahead of elections when a top commander of the outfit was killed in Shalteng on the outskirts of Srinagar.

Brigadier A.K. Chowdary, sector commander of the Rashtriya Rifles, told reporters that the killed militant, Bashir Ahmed Khan alias Abu Kashan hailing from Sargoda, Pakistan, had entered the Kashmir Valley a month ago, along with four other militants. He was specially sent from Jammu to Srinagar to target the politicians and election rallies, Brig. Chowdary said.

The divisional commander of the outfit, and the mastermind behind several attacks, was gunned down early this morning.

He said a diary was recovered and according to it Kashan was heading a three-member suicide squad. The names of the People's Democratic Party president, Mehbooba Mufti, the National Conference president, Omar Abdullah, the Shiv Sena leader, Bal Thackeray, the Jammu and Kashmir Minister, Muzaffar Hussain Beig, and some police officers figure in the dairy.

Ms. Mehbooba was referred to as "Mohtarma (esteemed) Mufti" and Mr. Omar as "Chota Abdullah." The Hurriyat Conference chairman, Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari, who has held two rounds of talks with the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, on the Kashmir issue is also on the hit list of the squad, Brig. Chowdary said.

According to the diary, the militant commander visited Baramulla on April 2 to hold a meeting for carrying out the attack on the PDP rally in Uri on April 8, in which Ms. Mehbooba and Mr. Beig survived but 11 persons were killed.

The slain militant had also mentioned that he visited the Jammu Railway station on December 26 and attacked it on January 3.

He held a meeting on February 26 in Bijbehara, the hometown of the Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

The diary said that on April 8, a "successful attack on two Ministers" was carried out in Uri.

Besides the diary, the troops recovered two AK assault rifles, nine magazines, 150 rounds, a pistol and two grenades.

As per the diary, the militant had visited Race Course, Pragati Maidan, Gargoan and Noida in Delhi for surveillance of the areas in which sensitive installations are located as also the residence of the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

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