IANS/New Delhi/Islamabad

India said yesterday the Udhampur terror attack was aimed at derailing peace in Jammu and Kashmir.
Islamabad meanwhile denied that the young militant in Indian custody was a Pakistani and sought proof from New Delhi for the captured militant’s Pakistani link.
“We strongly condemn the attack and the persistent attempts by terrorists from across the border to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere in Jammu and Kashmir,” Federal Home Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament.
Two militants ambushed and killed two BSF troopers on the Srinagar-Jammu highway in Udhampur district on Wednesday.
After one of them was killed, the other, now identified as Naved alias Mohamed Usman, fled to a village and took shelter in a house but was caught by three villagers.
Rajnath Singh said the captured terrorist — believed to be 20-something — admitted he was from Faisalabad in Pakistan.
Pakistani authorities denied that Usman was a Pakistani.
Dunya News cited official sources as saying that the suspect was not a Pakistani as information about him was not found in the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).
NADRA also said images of Usman shown on Indian television did not match any Pakistani citizen.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilulla was more forthright: “We have repeatedly asked India to refrain from (hurling false) accusations.”
Meanwhile, Usman was shifted to the Joint Interrogation Centre at Talab Tillo area in Jammu where intelligence officers from the state and New Delhi quizzed him.
Jammu and Kashmir government sources told IANS that a National Investigation Agency team headed by Inspector General Sunil Kumar visited the site where a BSF convoy was attacked at Narsu Nallah in Udhampur.
India is expected to take up with Islamabad the terror attacks at Udhampur and earlier in Gurdaspur in Punjab, which left seven people dead, when the National Security Advisers of India and Pakistan meet as scheduled later this month.
The BSF said there was no intelligence inputs of a possible terror attack in Udhampur.
BSF Director General D.K. Pathak said only one BSF trooper in the bus that was ambushed while going to the Kashmir Valley was armed.
“If our jawan had not neutralised (one of the militants), they would have caused mayhem... It was due to him that many lives were saved.”
The BSF also said that their convoy was not the intended target.