A dead Guru fires up Kashmiri fidayeen, to kill and be killed...

The Jammu and Kashmir police was warned twice about the possibility of a major terror attack in the Valley less than a month after Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was hanged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

The suicide attack that came on Wednesday in which two terrorists and five CRPF jawans were killed, and 10 people injured, was significant for two reasons.

One, this is the first time in three years that Kashmir has seen a suicide attack. Two, this is only the second time in the 24-year history of militancy in the Valley that local youth have participated in a suicide mission. Security forces identified one of the two terrorists as a resident of Sopore.

This contradicts home secretary RK Singh’s statement that both terrorists responsible for the attack were from Pakistan.

Wednesday’s attack has therefore revived fears that militancy may return to the Valley following Guru’s hanging.

The warnings to the J&K police, issued by the Multi Agency Centre (MAC), one of the arms of the Intelligence Bureau, were based on information that members of the United Jihad Council, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Hizbul Mujahideen met in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir on February 13, four days after Guru was hanged. At the meeting, all present vowed to avenge Guru’s hanging.

The Hizb claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack. The fidayeen, masquerading as cricketers, entered the J&K Police Public School playground in Bemina at 10.45am and mingled with the crowd. They had concealed AK-47 assault rifles and grenades in the kitbags they were carrying.

“The CRPF party (at the playground) was waiting to be deployed for law and order duties when they were attacked,” VS Yadav, inspector general of CRPF, Kashmir, said. The CRPF retaliated and the two were gunned down in 30 minutes.

The toll could have been significantly more if the school had been open. It was shut because of a strike called by separatists who are demanding that Guru’s mortal remains be returned to his family.

Sources blame the government decision to hang Guru for the attack and caution that more attacks can happen if the sentiment stays.

“If our reading is correct, the Guru sentiment is going to stay for some time at least. Hanging Guru was a fatal mistake by the government,” a source working on Kashmir militancy for over a decade said. “Terror outfits have found a great weapon in Guru. They are going to use it to attract more and more youth.”

Though AS Dulat, an expert on the geopolitics of the entire region and former R&AW chief, agreed Guru’s hanging has vitiated the atmosphere in the Valley, he wasn’t as apprehensive. “You cannot jump to conclusions in Kashmir’s case. It may prove to be just an one-off incident.”

He, however, admitted that the attack “demonstrates that militants have the capacity to strike in Kashmir and the flow of militants and ammunition has not stopped at the LoC.”

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