Pak's plan to target NSA Ajit Doval revealed after video recce of his office by JeM terrorist surfaces : Report
New Delhi/IBNS: The security cover of the office and residence of National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval has been increased manifold after an arrested Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist disclosed that he had conducted a reconnaissance at Sardar Patel Bhawan, and other important targets in Delhi on the instructions of his Pakistan-based handler, a Hindustan Times report said.
Doval has been targeted by terror groups operating from Pakistan after the 2016 Uri surgical strikes and the 2019 Balakot attack. He had interrogated Azhar after his arrest in India in 1994, as the Joint Director, Intelligence Bureau. He had also escorted Masood Azhar to Kandahar airport after the IC-814 hijack in 1999.
According to the report, the Union Home Ministry and security agencies have drawn a security dragnet at the Doval's office and residence after a detailed video recce of NSA's office surfaced during an interrogation by Jaish operative Hidayat-Ullah Malik, a resident of Jammu Kashmir's Shopian, following his arrest on February 6.
Malik is the head of Jaish front group, Lashkar-e-Mustafa and was arrested in Anantnag with arms and ammunition, the HT report stated.
A case--FIR number 15/2021 under section 18 and 20 UAP Act--has been registered against Mallik at the Gangyal police station in Jammu, added the report.
HT, citing people with the knowledge of the matter reported that Hidayat has confessed to the interrogators that he came to Delhi from Srinagar in an Indigo flight and recorded a video of the NSA's office and the detailed security arrangement of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and sent his Pakistan-based handler, known by codename "Doctor", through WhatsApp. Malik returned to Kashmir in a bus.
He also admitted to Jammu and Kashmir Police that he had conducted reconnaissance of the Samba Sector border area in the 2019 summer. He was accompanied by Sameer Ahnad Dhar, who was arrested on January 21, 2020 in connection with the 2019 Pulwama attack.
Malik had provided a Hyundai Santro car for a suicide attack in in May 2020 and looted and three other Jaish terrorists -- Irfan Thokar, Umar Mushtaq and Rayees Mustafa -- looted Rs 60 lakh from a J&K Bank cash van in Shopian on November 2020, according to infromation accessed by HT. During interrogation he also revealed names, code names, and phone numbers of 10 of his contacts in Pakistan, including the handler, the report added.
According to the report, Malik has revealed that he joined the Hizbul Mujahideen on July 31, 2019. Before that he worked as an over-ground operator for the Jaish. He shifted to Jaish in February 2020 and then raised a front group in August that year.
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