Uri terror attack: There could be 2 points from which terrorists entered the army camp. Probe on

The security establishment is looking on a two-point breach in the Uri attacks. The first one is at the Line of Control (LoC) at Uri and the second one being the perimeter of the Army base that saw the fencing wire being cut.

These breaches helped short listing Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) fidayeen access the heavily-guarded camp and execute one of the deadliest suicide attacks in J&K.

The people on sentry duty were possible not alert enough is what have been figured out in a review meeting called out by Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The attendees in the meeting considered this a serious lapse from what they learned from Pathankot where a fidayeen squad of Jaish infiltrated the strategically crucial air base, and because of Pakistan's attempt to cause upheaval in J&K.

As per the sources, JeM has been identified as the trigger group of the Uri attack. A representative of JeM called a local journalist in Kashmir and claimed responsibility.

"As per preliminary inputs, the suspected Jaish terrorists seem to have followed their usual modus operandi of infiltrating from across Pakistan the night before the attack and heading straight for the target. We suspect that the four Jaish fidayeen crossed the LoC at Uri, which lies not too far from the Army base, late on Saturday nightand were at the base in time for an early morning strike," a top functionary of the intelligence establishment told TOI.

"For now, the writing on the wall is clear: Infiltration has gone up significantly this year as compared to last year, with estimates putting the total cases so far at 100. In the days to come, both infiltration and terrorism will see a further spike," the intelligence officer warned.

Agencies on Sunday pointed to a recce of the administrative base and did not rule out help from a 'mole' or overground worker in alerting the Jaish masterminds to troop positions within the camp, thus helping the fidayeen maximise casualties. "A recce was done. The terrorists were aware of the layout of the camp and knew their way around. They had possibly identified the stretches where the fence was not properly manned and accordingly found a safe spot to cut the perimeter wire, all possible lapses on part of the Army, which was in charge of guarding both the LoC and base perimeter, are subjects of a detailed enquiry," " an officer told TOI.

There have been four infiltration attempts over the past weeks. They were: Nowgamin Baramulla in which four militants were killed; Poonch where one policeman was injured as he tried to intercept freshly-infiltrated Lashkar terrorists and two instances of forces foiling infiltration bids at Gurez and Tangdhar.

A possibility that the Uri attackers were the terrorists that got past Gurez or Tangdhar is also being considered.

"It seemed that Pakistan was up to something. Uri, where a changeover of troops was in progress and which the attackers had possibly got advance information of, may have provided the perfect target... that the forces were concentrated in south Kashmir, dealing with protests there, may have made Jaish strike in north Kashmir," a senior intelligence officer told TOI.

According to a police officer in J&K, the police is preoccupied with the unrest in the valley and this has caused the failure of the counter-insurgency grid to undertake pro-active anti-terror operations over the past two months, which has resulted in terrorists consolidating their ranks in J&K.

"The preoccupation of J&K police and central forces with crowd control has put counter-terror operations on hold. Moreover, intelligence on terrorists' movement and activity is not being generated. The number of terrorists holed up in the valley was around 170-180 before the current unrest. It remains to be seen if this has gone up significantly," the J&K police officer told TOI.
(image: Reuters)