When a group of four heavily-armed Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists attacked the Army establishment in Jammu in the wee hours of February 10, the intelligence agencies were already on their toes as the week marked the fifth death anniversary of the terror group's leader, Afzal Guru.
In a secret operation on February 9, 2013, Afzal Guru was hanged in New Delhi’s Tihar jail for his involvement in the 2001 Parliament attack.
“The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir was on hyper alert for Afzal Guru’s death anniversary, and an attack by Jaish’s AGS (Afzal Guru Squad ) wasn’t being ruled out. The only part which was unclear was where and when ..” remarked an intelligence official. The agencies are suspecting the AGS behind the attack.
Various outfits have been trying to encash on sentiments against Afzal Guru’s hanging, security sources said. “But the latest attack is the handiwork of Jaish AGS,” an official said.
Another security official observed that the Hizbul Mujahideen is as potent a force or more as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and is actively getting support from Pakistan.
For intelligence agencies in the Valley, it is not only the local militant outfits they had to watch out for, but in the last two months in 2017, there had been attempts by various terror outfits to use the Valley as a breeding ground, at least in the “virtual world” for now. On the eve of the death anniversary, the intelligence agencies were also scrutinising other unrelated intelligence inputs, including a ten-minute video released by Ansar Ghazwat ul-Hind, a Kashmiri group affiliated to the Al Qaida, which was formed by rebel Hizbul leader Zakir Musa.
While these inputs are unrelated to Saturday’s attack, agencies have been on their toes to ward off any attempts by any terror group in the last few days.
Musa, in his early 20s, is on top of the list of the most wanted terrorists operating in the Valley after he became popular among the young cadres of various terror groups post Afzal Guru’s hanging. The latest video, featuring what it claims is Afzal Guru’s last will from Tihar Jail, urges people to take up jihad to liberate Kashmir from tyrannical forces.
The video, released by its media wing Al-Hurr (meaning free or Independent) has featured images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistan’s ex-PM Nawaz Sharif, former president of America Barack Obama, along with Amarnath Yatra and Burhan Wani.
In the video, the narrator signs off with 'Aapka bhai Afzal Guru from Tihar Jail-Delhi’. The narrator repeatedly provokes the youngsters of Kashmir to take up jihad to free the state from Indian forces and calls Kashmir a ‘jail’ alleging that it has been surrounded by the Indian Armed Forces.
Intelligence sources said that the video is an attempt by Musa’s outfit to encash the opportunity and use videos and online material as “propaganda to continue to influence the youth and stoke hatred against the country, especially against the security forces in Kashmir.”
Another video that came on the radar of the intelligence agencies was a self-styled Kashmir unit of the Islamic State, in it's first kind of a video release, asking its fighters to carry out terror strikes in the Valley.
The 14-minute video in Urdu called on Muslims in the Valley to pledge their allegiance to the IS. The fighter in the video, Abu al Bara al-Kashmiri, is seated in front of a flag bearing the words 'Kashmir Province calling on fighters in the Valley to establish a Caliphate.'
Recently a pro-IS group had also invited “soldiers of Ansaar Gazwat-ul-Hind and their leader Ameer Zakir Musa to join the caravan of the Caliphate and respond to the call of time”
Security sources maintained that so far in the Valley no locals have appeared openly announcing their allegiance to the IS.
An alert has been sounded in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday. Union home minister Rajnath Singh is in touch with the state government while police officials are monitoring the situation after the terror attack. In Hyderabad, the home minister said that our security forces are capable of giving a befitting response to the attack and they are responding well to the situation.
Two Army soldiers have been martyred and two others injured along with women and children even as a gun battle is ensuing in Jammu’s Sunjuwan Army camp.
