Indian soldiers during the firefight at Uri with terrorists, who the Army says belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba. (Press Trust of India)
The terrorists who carried out Friday's attack on an Army camp in Uri belonged to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), said Lieutenant General Subrata Saha, the top army commander in Kashmir. All six had the support of the Pakistani establishment and were highly trained for special operations.
Eight soldiers were killed in the pre-dawn attack on the Army camp in Uri sector by militants who had infiltrated from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. All six died after a six-hour encounter.
GPS devices recovered from them showed that there is a staging area north of Jhelum on the other side of Line of Contol (LoC), Lt General Saha told reporters on Sunday. "One infiltration took place in Tut Mari Gali (Nowgam Sector) and one in Uri sector."
Also, there was "no doubt" that the terrorists were highly trained, he said.
"The infiltration took place in high altitude and snowy conditions. To infiltrate in these conditions, one requires a high level of physical fitness. For the second operation on Mohra, they crossed Jhelum by foot, which obviously requires high level of training," he said.
The slain militants were looking to hit civilian targets to create fear ahead of the third of the five-phase polling in Jammu and Kashmir, which is to be held on Tuesday, Lt General Saha said. There was a coordinated attempt from across the LoC to disrupt the electoral process, he added.
On Saturday, Lt General Saha had told NDTV the serial terror attacks bore an 'unambiguous clear link to Pakistan'. "There has been a top-down coordination in Pakistan to synchronise the terror attacks," he said, since it was "not possible for non-state actors in Pakistan to operate without nexus with elements in official establishment".