Majid Jahangir &

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 6

In an audacious attack inside Srinagar’s main health care facility, a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commander, a Pakistani who is believed to have met Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab at a training camp, today fled from custody, handcuffed. The attack took place at 11.38 am. Escorted by three policemen, six prisoners, including Naveed Jatt, alias Abu Hanzalla, lodged at the Srinagar Central Jail, were brought in a vehicle to Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital (SMHS) for a checkup. As Naveed got down, Head Constable Mushtaq Ahmad (48) and Babar Ahmad Khan (34) were shot dead.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)Piecing together eyewitness accounts and CCTV footage, the police said two militants were lying in wait at the parking lot of the hospital OPD. As soon as the police vehicle drove in, a pheran-clad youth handed a pistol to Naveed, who pumped bullets into Head Constable Mushtaq Ahmad’s chest. Babar Ahmad tried to retaliate but in vain. While Mushtaq died almost immediately, the latter succumbed to his injuries hours later.The militants are believed to have escaped on a motor bike. “It seems information on Naveed’s movement was leaked out from the central jail,” state police chief Shesh Paul Vaid said. DGP, Prisons, SK Mishra has ordered an internal inquiry.Naveed, the deputy of Lashkar’s Abu Qasim, the mastermind of several deadly attacks, was arrested in Kulgam district in June 2014. A school dropout from Borevella district of Multan, he is believed to have been involved in the attack on the Army in Hyderpora, on Silver Star Hotel along the national highway outside Srinagar and three attacks on the police and CRPF camps in south Kashmir.The police wanted to shift him, along with five other prisoners, to other high-security jails outside the Valley but was disallowed by a sessions court on December 26, 2017.  (With PTI inputs)