A Pakistani man who was allegedly sent to Jammu and Kashmir to set up sleeper cells and carry out attacks for the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), ended up doing something he probably didn’t really put on his to-do list – undergoing a hair transplant in Srinagar.
According to investigators, Muhammad Usman Jatt, alias “The Chinese”, a trained Lashkar-e-Taiba activist from Lahore, crossed the border into the Kashmir Valley with instructions to carry out a series of attacks. What followed, if his alleged account to investigators is to be believed, was a mission that gradually turned into something much more personal.
Srinagar police arrested Usman Jatt in early April along with Abdullah, alias Abu Hurairah, who has been described as the longest-living LeT terrorist. The case has since been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
During interrogation, Usman Jat, a “Chinese”, allegedly said that life in Kashmir was nothing like the picture painted in terrorist training camps across the border.
He told investigators that his goals changed after he witnessed the reality of daily life in the valley.
Gatt said he suffered from severe hair loss for years, which greatly affected his self-esteem, according to news agency PTI, citing unnamed investigators. He is said to have assumed that restoring hair was a luxury accessible only in the West.
This changed after he was introduced, through a fellow Pakistani terrorist named Zargam, to a shopkeeper in Srinagar who turned out to be a trusted contact within the Over Ground Workers (OGW) network, police sources told PTI.
Since this store owner had undergone a hair transplant, Jett spent some time convincing him to help him with the procedure.
According to investigators, he was eventually transferred to a clinic in the city, where treatment required multiple visits, including an overnight stay.
Based on the information provided during interrogation, Srinagar Police sources said they were able to dismantle the entire OGW network operating across North Kashmir and Srinagar city.
After the procedure was completed, Jat took a passenger car to Jammu, then a sleeper bus to Punjab, and finally reached Malerkotla, where he is said to have spent his time watching Turkish TV serials and trying to learn English, investigators said.
He told investigators that he aspired to obtain an Aadhaar card, a PAN card and eventually a passport to flee India, on the trail of another infiltrator who had successfully escaped using forged documents and was now believed to be somewhere in the Gulf.
