JK: Militants change terror strategy for attacks

Srinagar, Nov 14: Militants change their strategy constantly while carrying out terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir to cause large-scale casualties to security forces as evident from a grenade blast followed by a car bomb explosion in the city today.

Militants first lobbed a hand grenade on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp at Karan Nagar here and within few minutes, triggered a powerful car bomb explosion near the same spot.

The strategy and the technique used today suggested that militants lobbed the hand grenade first to create panic among the security personnel and force them out of the camp to the spot.

As the security personnel gathered at the spot to check the situation, militants triggered a powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) laden in a car parked nearby.

Security officials, when contacted, told sources that militants were constantly upgrading their techniques and strategy to inflict more casualties. ''We too have to change our strategy accordingly to meet the challenges thrown by the militants regularly,'' a security official said.

The method followed today was earlier put in use on August 10, 2000 when militants triggered a powerful car bomb blast, killing 12 people, including 10 policemen and a photographer of a national daily, in a decoy grenade attack at the busy Residency Road here.

The attack then came two days after the Hizbul Mujahideen, the single largest indigenous militant group operating in Jammu and Kashmir, withdrew the unilateral ceasefire it had declared on July 25, 2000 following India's refusal to include Pakistan in any trilateral talks over the Kashmir issue as proposed by the group.

The Delhi-based photographer of the Hindustan Times, Pradeep Kumar Bhatia, was among those killed in the blast which the Army experts believed was triggered by PETN chemical explosive.

On that day, militants had first hurled a grenade near the Kothi Bagh police station on the Residency Road and within 15 minutes as a large number of security men and mediapersons gathered there, the ultras blew up an explosive-laden white Ambassador car.

Militants keep changing their strategy and methods of carrying out terror attacks constantly. This year, they have carried out grenade attacks, close-range pistol firing on security personnel and triggered bomb explosions by mobile phones.

The ultras mostly carried out 'fidayeen (suicide)' attacks last year while in 2004, they caused large-scale IED blasts.

UNI

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