Pak army accepts body of Lashkar terrorist, a 1st in two decades

Jammu: For the first time in more than two decades, Pakistan on Monday accepted the body of a trained agent and guide of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group who had infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir to attack an army post. The body of Tabarak Hussain (32) was handed over two days after he died of cardiac arrest at a military hospital in Rajouri district, officials said. He was operated at the hospital where army soldiers even donated blood to him to keep him alive, they said. Hussain, a resident of Sabzkot village of Kotli in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), underwent surgery for bullet injuries that he had suffered while trying to infiltrate into this side from across the border last month.

"Body of Hussain was handed over to Pakistan by the Indian Army in the presence of police and civil officers at Chakan Da Bagh crossing point on the LoC in Poonch district," an army official said, adding this is probably the first instance in more than two decades of Pakistan accepting the body of a terrorist.

Pakistan has always declined to accept the bodies of their nationals involved in terror acts in Jammu and Kashmir, the official said. Hussain, a trained LeT guide and Pakistani Army agent, attempted to infiltrate this side in the Nowshera sector of Rajouri on August 21 when he was shot at and critically injured by the Indian troops. He was later shifted to a military hospital in Rajouri where he underwent surgery during which the soldiers donated three units of blood to save his life. However, he suffered a fatal cardiac arrest on September 3.

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All the medico-legal formalities, including the postmortem of the deceased, were completed on Sunday and accordingly, the Pakistan army was contacted for the return of the body, the official said. On August 24, Army's 80 Infantry Brigade Commander, Brigadier Kapil Rana said Hussain confessed to his plan to attack the Indian Army post along with two others who, however, fled back after they were intercepted on the LoC in the Nowshera sector