As forensic experts visited the site of the Pulwama terror attack, a day after 40 CRPF personnel were blown up in a powerful suicide blast triggered by a local youth who joined Jaish ranks, senior police officials were worrying over the security implications of the incident.
Senior police officials feel the magnitude of the fidayeen attack carried out by local youth, Adil Ahmad Dar, in Lethpora, Awantipora, Pulwama district, could lure other disgruntled Kashmiri youth to join militant ranks.
“On the security front it terrifies me. It can set a new trend locally. Given the magnitude of it, it can lure more locals to emulate such an act. Such activities in Afghanistan proved effective for the Taliban, and I worry it may become a standard here,” an official told Outlook.
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Meanwhile, most people have urged for a political solution to the Kashmir issue.
Kashmiris have also appealed to the people of Jammu to maintain peace. “News of violence is coming out of Jammu. The people of Jammu need to ensure all Kashmiris/Muslims remain safe,” appealed Tanvir Sadiq, political secretary to National Conference leader Omar Abdullah.
“Let not the fringe politicise the Pulwama incident. We all stand in solidarity with the families of those killed. Violence is no answer to what is happening. Let humanity prevail over the state,” Sadiq said.
In Jammu, the administration has imposed curfew at the Bus Stand, Bakshi Nagar, Channi Himmat, Janipur, Domana and other areas after protesters burnt vehicles and attacked houses in Gujjar Nagar locality, where mostly Muslims live.
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At least 12 persons were injured and half a dozen vehicles torched in Gujjar Nagar area as violence broke out in Jammu during the Jammu Bandh today. The bandh was called by the Jammu Chambers of Commerce and Industry in protest against the attack on the CRPF.
Meanwhile, in Kashmir Valley, the security forces have allowed traffic on the highway today while the site of the IED blast is being examined by forensic experts.
In one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir's three decades of militancy, Jaish suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar rammed a SUV packed with explosives into a CRPF bus in Pulwama district on Thursday, killing at least 40 personnel and leaving many critically wounded.
More than 2,500 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Valley, were travelling in the convoy of 78 vehicles when they were ambushed on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Latoomode in Awantipora.
Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) has claimed responsibility for the horror and released a video clip, in which the bomber, 'commander' Adil, talks of his impending terror mission. The Jaish claimed the video was shot before the young man carried out the strike in Lethpora.
Police sources in a statement said that Dar was driving the vehicle packed with over 350 kg of explosives on the wrong side of the road and hit the bus, in which estimated 35-44 personnel were travelling.
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This was the first suicide car bomb attack in Kashmir since the 2001 strike on the Legislative Assembly in which 41 people, including three suicide attackers, were killed.
