Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar-led Al Umar Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the terror attack, which led to the death of five jawans and injured five others. (Photo: Aaj Tak)

A terrorist who was released by India in the 1999 hijacking incident is suspected to be the man behind the Anantnag terror attack which led to the deaths of five CRPF jawans on Wednesday.

Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, the leader of a defunct terror group Al Umar Mujahideen, was one of the three terrorists who was released along with JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar in exchange for over 150 hostages of the Indian Airlines Flight 814 in December 1999. Zargar was in jail since 1992 after the hijackers of Indian Airlines Flight 814 managed to secure his release in 1999.

Two terrorists, believed to be from Al-Umar Mujahideen, attacked a Road Opening Party of the CRPF late on Wednesday evening in south Kashmir's Anantnag. Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar-led Al Umar Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the terror attack, which led to the death of five jawans and injured five others.

Sources told India Today TV that Al Umar Mujahideen chief Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar is the main man behind the Anantnag terror attack.

However, officials cliamed that the terror attack was a handiwork of Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Intelligence agencies said Al Umar Mujahideen doesn't have enough firepower to carry out such an attack. Sources said Mustaq Ahmed Zargar may have been given the responsibility to strike a collaboration between with Al Umar Mujahideen and Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed led by Masood Azhar to specifically target Kashmir.

Intelligence agencies believe that a new nexus between terror group Al Umar Mujahideen and JeM has emerged and Mustaq Ahmed Zargar is the point person who may have stitched the collaboration.

Mustaq Ahmed Zargar was initially part of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and has been in Pakistan since long.