'I'm the unfortunate father': Pakistani man says Udhampur terrorist Naved's his son

In a development which may leave Islamabad red-faced, a Pakistan-based man on Thursday identified himself as the father of Mohammad Naved, the only terrorist captured alive after the Udhampur terror attack.

When Hindustan Times contacted a man called Mohammad Yakub using a phone number disclosed to interrogators by Naved, he said, “You are calling from India. We’ll be killed. I am the unfortunate father.”

Mohammad Yakub, in his conversation with Hindustan Times, also said that the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) wanted him and Naved dead. “I’ll be killed. The Lashkar is after us and the fauj is after us…. They probably wanted him dead and not caught alive. Please spare him,” the Hindustan Times quoted Yakub as saying.

The report added that the call to Yakub was made at 1.22 pm and lasted for a minute and 20 seconds.

CNN-IBN also reportedly contacted Yakub. “We are troubled by the developments,” CNN-IBN quoted Yakub as saying and reported that he told them not to call him up again.

Earlier on Thursday, Pakistan had rejected India’s assertion that Naved was of Pakistani-origin and asked India to refrain from making “accusations”.

“We have also seen media reports and I will not offer any comment on that issue. We expect the Indian authorities to share information with us on the claims that are being made in the media,” Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Syed Qazi Khalilullah had said on the arrest of the terrorist in India.

“We have said many a times that making immediate accusations on Pakistan is not correct. These things should be based on facts. We expect that whenever Pakistan is being accused of something, it will be accompanied with correct evidence,” he had said.

Khalilullah had said that the Indian claim was baseless. “We have repeatedly asked India to refrain from accusations.”

Separately, a Pakistan government source had been quoted by the Express Tribune as saying, “National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) record shows Indian claims of an arrested person, Usman Khan (Mohammed Naved Yakub), originating from Pakistan are totally baseless.”

In yet another terror attack suspected to be originating from Pakistan, two BSF constables were killed on the crucial Jammu-Srinagar highway on Wednesday, but one of the two LeT terrorists involved was captured alive like Ajmal Kasab in the 2008 Mumbai terror strike.

(With inputs from PTI)