`Mush rewarded Pak militant who slit throat of Indian officer`

Islamabad, Sep 20 (PTI) Ilyas Kashmiri, a militant
commander who fought in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s and is
believed to have been killed in a recent US drone attack, was
once rewarded by Pervez Musharraf for "slitting the throat" of
an Indian Army officer in 2000, a media report said today.

Kashmiri, a commander of the Harkat-ul-Jehad
al-Islami, was reportedly killed in a drone attack in North
Waziristan last week.

He also served in the elite Special Service Group, a
commando unit of the Pakistan Army, and was deputed by the
military to train Afghan mujahideen fighting the Russian Army
in Afghanistan in the mid-1980s, The News daily reported.

On February 26, 2000, Kashmiri reportedly conducted a
guerrilla operation against the Indian Army in Nakyal sector
after crossing the LoC with 25 militants. He surrounded a
bunker and threw grenades inside.

"He was able to kidnap an injured Indian officer whose
throat he later slit, the report said. Kashmiri came back to
Pakistan with the head of the Indian officer and presented it
to top army officials, including then army chief Gen
Musharraf, who gave him a cash award of Rs 1 lakh," the report
said.

Pictures of Kashmiri with the head of the dead Indian
officer in his hands were published in some Pakistani
newspapers and he became very important among militants, the
report said. (MORE) PTI