3 of 10 Pakistani Terrorists 'Neutralised'

Operations on to capture rest; hunt initiated after Pakistan warned of possible attack on prominent religious places.

NEW DELHI: Security agencies have neutralised 3 of the 10 suspected Pakistani terrorists who had allegedly infiltrated into Indian Territory from Gujarat recently to carry out terror strikes targeting vital installations and religious places including the Somnath Temple.

A Ministry of Home Affairs official said the three terrorists were neutralised in a western state last Friday before they could carry out any attack in the country.

“The remaining 7 terrorists have also been zeroed in their hideouts and operation is on to neutralise them. The operation is still on so we cannot provide any more details,” the official said.

The Intelligence input was shared by Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Nasir Khan Janjua to his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval in the first week of March that 10 terrorists belonging to terror outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammed had entered Gujarat to carry out terror strikes. The MHA official said the input was accurate and swift action was taken by security agencies which had launched operation to neutralise them before they could strike. He said that Central government had deployed 4 National Security Guard (NSG) teams in Gujarat besides activating local intelligence network in the state. “We had very specific input that 10 terrorists may strike at the location mentioned in the alert including Somnath Temple ahead of Mahashivratri. An alert was sounded in Gujarat and manhunt was launched across all major cities by central security agencies,” the Home Ministry official further added.

This was the first time that Pakistani NSA had shared intelligence input with the Indian counterpart. So far Pakistan has denied that terrorists are using its territory to launch strike against India. But, given the present situation where it has agreed to cooperate in Pathankot attack case, the Pakistani authorities admitted that Lashkar and Jaish trained infiltrated into Indian territory.

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