Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 15: In the wake of three fidayeen attacks in Jammu and Kashmir during the past one week, the Centre Government has ordered all security agencies to undertake fresh security audit of all sensitive and vulnerable security installations in the State and initiate all necessary steps to ensure that “suicide squads” of terrorist outfits don’t manage to sneak-in.
The fresh Centre direction came in the wake of reports that three militant outfits of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) were preparing more militants to carry out fidayeen attacks on security installation.
“The fresh security audit is aimed at ensuring that the suicide squads are eliminated before they could enter the security installations. A fool-proof strategy would be prepared taking into account the requirements of installations especially, which were vulnerable and prone to terror attacks,” official sources told the Excelsior.
They said the Defence Ministry, the Home Ministry, security and Intelligence agencies were of the view that the militants could make more attempts to target security installations before the summer to create panic and spoil tourist season in the Kashmir valley and it has to be ensured by the agencies that the militants don’t succeed in their plans.
“They (the fidayeens) will continue to come till they are completely wiped out but the security agencies must take all steps to ensure that the attacks are promptly foiled without suffering casualties or damages,” sources said, adding that the fresh security audit would take into consideration all requirements of security forces including concerns voiced by security agencies about civilian colonies and dwelling units coming up close to their installations.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her visit here after attack on Sunjuwan Military Station had also expressed concern that civilian constructions not only in Jammu and Kashmir but all across the country were coming up close to Military installations, some of them will valid permission.
Only few days back, the Defence Ministry had released about Rs 1600 crore for fortification of Military establishments in the country including Jammu and Kashmir. This, according to sources, was long pending demand of the Army, which wants its installations to be completely fortified to prevent the terror attacks.
Sources said by trying to carry out more fidayeen attacks on security installations, the militants were trying to give message of violent summer in Kashmir to spoil tourist season as a good season in the Valley sends out a message of peace, which the militants and their mentors sitting across the border don’t like.
Concern over the terror attacks on security installation-three during the past one week-the Centre, according to sources, don’t want to take any chance and would like to take all measures recommended in the security audit to ensure that such kind of attacks are foiled at the very first entry point.
Asserting that local support was also very crucial, sources said, it has been pointed out that it was the duty of local police everywhere to keep surveillance on “strangers” especially those settled close to security force installations and ensure that they don’t give shelter to “anti-national elements”.
Sources admitted that “Over Ground Workers” (OGWs) have once again become a cause of concern. Till sometime back, number of the OGWs had drastically come down and the militants were finding it difficult to reach their destinations. However, in a number of cases, it has now been found that the OGWs had helped the militants identify their targets or reach the hideouts safely.
In Sunjuwan Military Station attack, it has been established that a local guide had helped three fidayeens reach the intended target but escaped after leaving the militants. This Over Ground Worker has remained untraced so far as all three militants were killed in the gunbattle. It has also been observed in the attack that the militants had been provided shelter in local areas, which was evident that they had shaved before launching the attack.
The serious approach of the Centre Government to tackle fidayeen attacks can be gauged from the fact that Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had reviewed security situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of three attacks last week, for two consecutive days with top officials of Home Minister, Central Armed Police Forces and Intelligence agencies.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also visited Jammu for review of security situation after the attack.
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