Jammu attacks: The unanswered questions By: Sandhya Jain There is consternation in the 16 Cavalry at Samba at the media projection that the officers and men who died in the terrorist attack in the early morning of September 26 were sitting ducks, when in reality they died heroically, putting up a protracted fight in the Officer’s Mess where the officers were having breakfast when the attack began. They rallied instantly and finally eliminated all three terrorists there. The unit’s second in command Lt Col Bikramjit Singh and soldiers Kiran Kumar, Inder Singh and MS Rao died in this confrontation, while commanding officer Col Avin Uthaiya was hit on the chest and shoulder by two bullets (now stable in a military hospital). Had they not put up such staunch resistance, the families, including ladies and children, barely 100 yards away, who would have been the next target of the terror strike. A view is gaining ground that the intruders were trained commandos, as in Mumbai in 2008. By all accounts, the encounter at Samba was fierce and lasted several hours. For the first time in a counter-insurgency operation inside the State, four helicopters were deployed to watch the movement of the terrorists and two tanks moved inside the Army camp. Doubtless the Army court of inquiry will investigate the security lapses that allowed the intruders to gain easy access to the Officers’ Mess gate, which was manned only by sepoy Kiran Kumar. Weak perimetre defences are emerging as a feature of high security establishments in Jammu & Kashmir. Bhim Singh, president emeritus of the Jammu-based Panthers Party, questions the claims of the State Government regarding the attack and points out that if the terrorists crossed the international border and drove to Hiranagar police station where they killed four policemen and two civilians, and then drove to Samba district an hour away and killed an officer and three soldiers in the Army camp, how were they not intercepted at any point along these routes? In all, 13 persons died in the twin incidents. How could the administration and intelligence agencies in Hiranagar not become aware of the incident once firing began, and how was a truck with a driver stationed conveniently outside the police station to help the terrorists depart? There is a complicit silence regarding sleeper cells in the State, and the possible connection with Omar Abdullah’s illegal rehabilitation policy for supposedly surrendered terrorists from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir returning to the State via the Nepal border. The terrorists located the Army camp with ease and entered carrying heavy weaponry, but could not be detected by any agency. Hence there is need to conclusively establish if the terrorists who attacked Hiranagar were the same as those who attacked the Samba Army Camp, or if a separate group sneaked in simultaneously to attack the Army camp to divert the attention of security forces from the Hiranagar attack. As of now, the identity of the terrorists has not been disclosed to the public, and it is also not clear if there were more than three terrorists in the group of attackers. Some reports mentioned a fourth terrorist, but official sources are silent. However, Roshan Lal, the driver of the auto-load carrier that was hijacked by the militants near Jhandi village along the border and forced to take them to Hiranagar, told the authorities that the Pakistani terrorists had asked him to take them to the Hiranagar prison (where some high-profile Pakistani prisoners are lodged), but by mistake he took them to the police station close by. Here they abandoned the carrier, shot a policeman on duty and three others inside the station (ASI Rattan Singh, selection grade constable Kuldeep Singh, constable Shiv Kumar, special police officer Mukesh Kumar), and PCO owner Suresh Kumar outside the station. They fired three bullets at Roshan Lal when he tried to escape, but he survived, and is currently at the GMC Hospital Jammu. ASI Ganga Ram and constable Rattan Chand were also injured in the firing. The terrorists then hijacked a tempo truck (JK03-7810) which had been seized by the police the previous night and was parked inside the premises, killed its cleaner Muhammed Feroz (a resident of Kashmir), and proceeded to the army camp in Samba. The driver, Mohammad Ashraf Khan, is being questioned by the Special Operations Group (SOG). It is inexplicable that a major alert along the border was not sounded by the time they reached Samba, and this needs to be investigated and explained. Given the growing number of attacks on military and paramilitary forces in Jammu & Kashmir, both the Centre and the State Government must examine the circumstances in which these attacks are taking place. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah must be made to keep his anti-armed forces rhetoric under control and stop demanding withdrawal of the Army from sensitive places including districts like Kathua which fall on the International Border with Pakistan. A little-known outfit identifying itself as the Shuhada Brigade has since claimed responsibility for the attack. Its spokesperson, Sami-ul-Haq, told local newspapers that the identities of the fidayeen were Mohammad Akram, Furqanul Haq and Engineer Vikas, and all hailed from Jammu. There is, however, no official confirmation in this regard. The brutal attacks have created a fear psychosis in Jammu.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 04:12:41 +0000
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