Suicide attack foiled, say J&K police

The Jammu and Kashmir police Tuesday arrested three militants, one of whom they say was a Pakistan army regular.

Addressing a news conference in Jammu, state director general of police Kuldeep Khuda said, "The three arrested terrorists were on a bombing mission and one of them Ghulam Farid was a Pakistan army regular belonging to "Azad Kashmir regiment" with belt no. 4319184 and two others namely, Mohammad Abdullah of Sarian area of NWFP and Mohammad Imran of Bhawalpur were arrested from a local hotel near the main bus stand."

"The two terrorists, Abdullah and Imran who had been trained by Mufti Abdul Rauf, the brother of Jaish-e- Mohammad chief Masood Azhar had booked the hotel rooms on fake names and were waiting for a guide who had to come from the valley with arms and explosives and identify targets for the terrorists."

Masood Azhar was released by the Indian government in December 1999 in exchange for the 155 passengers of the hijacked Indian airlines flight to Kandhar in Afghanistan.

Khuda said that the terrorists reached Jammu on December 20 from Kolkatta and were "on a shooting and bombing mission on the scale of the Mumbai terror attacks."