Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, July 27: “Security forces are investigating the possibility of insider’s information about the movement of an Army convoy that was attacked at Hyderpora in Srinagar last month in which eight Army personnel were killed and over a dozen were injured”, a senior police officer said here.
Militants chose an Army vehicle in the convoy with un-armed soldiers for the lethal attack on Hyderpora Bypass, a day before Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh visited Srinagar last month.
“We can’t rule out insider’s information about the particular vehicle of the convoy in which the Army men were without weapons. The attack was targeted at that vehicle only when there were up and down convoys plying on the highway. We are investigating various angles about what led to the targeting of that particular vehicle”, the officer said.
He added that militants have infiltrated into security forces ranks but police have been able to identify and nab them. The officer cited the example of Constable Abdul Rashid Shigan and Sub-Inspector Shiv Kumar Sharma alias Sonu who were working at the behest of the militants and were involved in the militancy related incidents in the State.
“We were able to identify and arrest them. We can’t rule out more infiltrations in police. Such infiltrations do take place in the security force ranks in conflict situations”, the officer said.
The officer said that militants in Kashmir have changed their strategy with the aim to inflict more casualties on security forces and in return incite them for collateral damage that could lead to public anger against the Government and street protests.
“Two police men were killed at point blank range in Hari Singh Street, Srinagar on June 22 in busy market place but we didn’t fire back as it could have caused civilian casualties”, the officer said.
The officer said that such type of provocative attacks where they were expecting collateral damage was Bemina attack on CRPF camp in March this year where children were playing cricket, Hyderpora attack on Army convoy, and attack on Dr. Sheikh Jalal in busy street at Pampore where two police men were killed and the doctor was critically wounded.
“The aim of these attacks at public places was to incite the security forces for collateral damage so as to incite people against the Government and trigger street protests”, the officer said. “But security forces didn’t fell prey to the militant designs and maintained utmost restraint during recent attacks on the security forces”, he added.
The officer said that soon after the attack on Army convoy in Hyderpora, Police directed the Army not to open fire. “We told the senior Army officers that there was no point to fire back as the militants had fled and the firing can only cause civilian casualty”, he added.
The officer said that this year there were more lethal attacks on the security forces in Kashmir valley in which casualty figure on security forces is higher than the previous years.
With the changing strategy of carrying out lethal attacks on security forces, so far 33 security men were killed in militant attacks since March this year. The biggest one being the Hyderpora attack of last month in which 8 Army personnel were killed and over a dozen injured.
Militants in most of these lethal attacks took security forces by surprise. In March 13 this year, 5 CRPF jawans were killed when militants attacked them at Bemina and most of the jawans were without weapons as they were on law and order duty.
In Hygam Sopore, militants on April 26 attacked a police party and killed four police men. The police party had gone to investigate a theft case which militants had faked.
In Tral on May 25, four Army men were killed when militants took them by surprise after trapping them in their drag net.
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