Owning suicide bomber exposes Pakistan: Indian Army chief

NEW DELHI - Army chief General V.K. Singh said Tuesday the Pakistan Army had exposed its “intentions” by owning up and hailing as a martyr an ISI suicide bomber who died in an Indian hospital in 2007.

“I have nothing to say on what they (the Pakistan Army) has put up on its website. But if it has, then it clearly show what their intentions and ways are and what their next move will be,” Singh told reporters here when asked about the Pakistan Army’s website posting.

The army chief also said that India needed to be more alert.

“All I can say is we have to be more alert and only then we can protect the people and our troops,” he said.

The Indian Army chief’s remarks came a day after the Pakistani Army’s website - www.pakistanarmy.gov.pk - claimed that an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agent who was on a suicide attack operation died in a New Delhi hospital Nov 16, 2007.

The posting was in the Shuhadas (martyrs) corner of the website, which had previously revealed the list of Pakistans dead in the 1999 Kargil operation.

It names the operative as Naik Zulfiqar Ahmed, gives his army number as 1726016, and says he was on a suicide attack. The operative, the website claims, died of kidney failure and acute respiratory infection at New Delhi’s Ganga Ram Hospital.

The Indian Army chief met with some Jammu and Kashmir school children who were in Delhi as part of a tour conducted as per Army’s ‘Op Sadhbhavana’ - an operation to win the hearts of the people of Kashmir.

On infiltration, the army chief said: We have tried our best (to prevent it). We are trying to stop infiltration. We will be alert on all fronts.”