“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.
