Security Agencies Smell Possible Terrorist Attack in J&K, High Alert Sounded

Couple of days after the killing of notorious terrorist, Riyaz Naikoo, the security forces has sounded a high alert in Jammu and Kashmir. The security agencies had a tip off that the terrorist group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, was planning to carry out a violent attack in Kashmir Valleys and suburban areas.

They were also targeting the army personnel and the paramilitary forces in LRP or other such activities across the region. “Possibly, they will use car bomb or a suicide bomber to attack on the Indian securities”, sources revealed.

According to the security agencies, Naikoo was the member of the Pakistan-backed infamous Terrorist group, Jaishe-e-Mohammad, and was associated with the Terrorist organization for more than 8 years.

The heightened security in Kashmir coincides with the terror group Hizbul Mujahideen naming Ghazi Haider aka Saifullah Mir as the next chief chief of the terror group in Kashmir to replace Riyaz Naikoo who was killed in an encounter this week.

“Ghazi Haider is a nom de guerre. Ghazi means Islamic warrior, Haider is brave,” a security official in Kashmir said, adding that operations to locate the new Hizbul chief would begin soon. The terror outfit has also readied its second line of leadership. Ghazi Haider would have a deputy, Zafar ul Islam, and a chief military adviser Abu Tariq Bhai.

For now, the immediate priority of the security forces is to neutralise the Jaish-e-Mohammed threat to convoys of security forces on May 11. The terrorist group has been planning the possible attacks on Monday for days. Last week, according to intelligence reports, Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar, the de facto chief of Jaish, had met his handlers at Pakistan military’s Inter Services Intelligence.

Security officials said the choice of May 11 for an attack coincides with the 17th day of Ramadan when the Battle of Badr was fought and won by a few hundred soldiers in Saudi Arabia. In Islamic history, it is seen as a huge victory in the early days of Islam and a turning point.

It is also the 22nd anniversary of India’s second round of Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998 when India became a nuclear weapons state with a capability to deliver airborne and land-based nuclear devices.

The Jaish-e-Mohammed, which has a large proportion of foreign terrorists in its ranks, is expected to use local Kashmiris for the bombing as it had done in the Pulwama car bombing last year that targeted a convoy of CRPF troopers.

Counter-terror officials in North Block said the Northern Army commander and chiefs of Central Reserve Police Force and Jammu and Kashmir police’s special operations groups had already been sensitised about the possible attack.