Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Mar 21: A Border Security Force (BSF) personnel was killed and two others were injured in a militant attack in Srinagar this morning, police said here.
Director General of Police, Ashok Prasad said here that militants like every year are adopting new strategies. “We will devise our own strategies and we have counter strategy in place”, he added.
A police spokesman said here that unidentified militants fired upon BSF vehicle bearing registration number JK05-7615 of 8th Battalion A-Coy at Methain Bypass, in Chanpora Srinagar at around 7:30 a.m. today.
The spokesman said that two BSF constables Hem Singh (No. 95455235) and Krishen Kalita (No. 94007147) got injured. They were removed to 92-Base Hospital of Army at Badamin Bagh Cantonment, Srinagar for treatment, where Krishen Kalita succumbed his injures. Kalita is from Assam. Another jawan, Heem Singh was also injured in the attack.
Senior police and paramilitary officers rushed to the spot following the attack and a case was registered at the local police station.The area was cordoned off and search operation was conducted. However, no one was arrested.
Sources said that militants who attacked the BSF had come on a mortar cycle and fled after carrying out the attack. They said that these militants are part of the recently infiltrated groups, whose two members were killed in last week’s Fidayeen attack at Bemina.
After the attack on CRPF in Bemina on March 13 in which 5 CRPF men were killed and 10 others including 6 CRPF men were injured, security forces received inputs that these two Pakistani nationals, Chota Huraira and Abu Saad are in the outskirts of Srinagar and are planning an attack on security forces.
Security agencies believed that the attack on BSF was carried out by these two Lashkar-e-Toiba militants with the help of a local militant. They suspected that Hilal Molvi of Pattan has joined this two member group of Pakistani nationals in carrying out attack in Srinagar.
Sources said that a local police officer had alerted the Police higher ups about the possible attack in Nowgam Bypass area. “The police officer had informed the higher ups about the continuous reports of movement of suspicious people in the area for past few days”, sources added.
Two militant outfits have claimed responsibility for the attack. Jamait-ul-Mujahideen (JeM) spokesman Jameel Ahmad while claiming the responsibility told a local news agency over phone that the attack was a revenge attack for the killing of a Baramulla youth Tahir Ahmad by Army and Altaf Ahmad of Srinagar by CRPF. He claimed that Al-Tawheed squad of the outfit carried out the attack.
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) also claimed responsibility for the attack saying its cadres were involved in the attack. HM spokesman, Baleeg-ud-Din told a local news agency that they have formed a militant group to carry such attacks. He warned more such attacks in future. The outfit claimed that the cadres who carried out the attack reached safely to their hideouts.
This is the second such attack in Srinagar this month. On March 13, a suicide squad attacked CRPF in Bemina area of the city. Five CRPF men and two attacking Fidayeen were killed in the incident, while 10 others, including four civilians, were injured. The March 13 attack was the first such incident in Srinagar in three years.
The DGP Prasad told reporters here that series of militant attacks took place in Kashmir as the security forces were pre-occupied with law and order for past over a month. “We have had series of incidents but because of our pre-occupation with other things we have been unable to come to grip with the situation”, he added.
“I don’t think it is an alarming situation but it definitely is a threat and we will tackle it according to the information and intelligence inputs we get”, said the DGP.
Prasad said that security forces don’t want to overreact to these attacks. “Overreacting to a situation is not also very productive thing. We will go on the basis of specific intelligence, information and will take counteraction “, he added.
“We should not go all out against militancy. We have to ensure that there is no collateral damage while dealing with militancy. We are not going to pick up people here and there. We want zero damage and act on pin point information”, said the DGP.
Prasad said that militancy has not gone yet. “We are nowhere close to zero militancy incident situations. If you compare last year with this year the number of incidents is less. The statically trend it is on lower scale”, he added.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah has condemned the killing of a security personnel in Srinagar describing it an act of cowardice.
In his message, the Chief Minister expressed his sympathies with the bereaved family and prayed for peace to the departed soul. He also prayed for early recovery of the injured.
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