Pakistani suicide bomber held at Punjab border

AMRITSAR - An alleged suicide bomber from Pakistan has been arrested after troopers of the Border Security Force (BSF) caught him doing a reconnaissance of the area at the Attari international border in this frontier district of Punjab.

During initial interrogation by security agencies, the youth, identified as Noman Arshad of Singhpura in Pakistan, said that he had come to the border for a recce, officials said Wednesday.

“The Pakistani youth was arrested by the BSF as he was carrying out a recce of the border belt. Further investigations are in progress,” BSF Punjab Frontier Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Jagir Singh told IANS.

Arshad claimed that he had been trained in use of weapons and explosives at the Okaya training camp in Pakistan, the same place where the lone surviving terrorist involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, Ajmal Amir Kasab, was trained.

BSF sources said that the youth had told them that a group of “fidayeen” (suicide attackers) were preparing to infiltrate the barbed-wire fenced Indian border in Punjab.

Arshad was apprehended inside Indian territory by troopers of the BSF’s 55th battalion.

The arrest of the Pakistani youth comes less than a week after rockets were fired into India from across the Punjab border for the third time in recent months, the earlier ones being fired in July and September last year.