Alert sounded against suicide attacks by Lashkar activists

By K. Srinivas Reddy

HYDERABAD, MARCH 24. The Intelligence Department has sounded an alert about possible `fidayeen' attacks by activists of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in the State and asked all police units to tighten security at vital installations and at `big gathering places'.

Intelligence agencies have also gathered information about 50 volunteers of the LeT being trained in handling of `Igla' and `Strella' rockets in Pakistan. The agencies suspect that these rockets could be used for attacking VVIPs and strategic targets in different parts of the country.

In a confidential memo circulated only to the police unit heads and their superior officers, the Intelligence Department said the LeT cadre had acquired sophisticated weapons from the Taliban in Afghanistan and also from the Pakistan-based ISI sources. The sleuths have sounded that the LeT was identifying and collecting information about vulnerable targets in Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and other States.

Considering the already established presence of the ISI operatives here and their plans to organise serial bomb blasts and fanning communal passions, the alert notice assumes significance in Andhra Pradesh. In addition to LeT operatives, the presence of Al-Umma, another fundamentalist outfit, in Andhra Pradesh has been causing concern to law-enforcing agencies. A top LeT operative, Azam Ghori, who was trained in subversive activities, was shot dead by the police in Jagtial town of Karimnagar district.

The alert notice drew the attention of senior officers to the possibility of suicide attacks being attempted outside Jammu and Kashmir and said police officers in the State should be `sensitised' about the modus operandi being followed by the `fidayeen' groups. Analysing such attacks in Kashmir, the notice said the terrorists invariably survey the camps and surrounding areas well before launching suicide attacks. "Micro level intelligence of suspicious characters and movements could help foil their attempts".

The second modus operandi being followed was that the sentries guarding the entrances of protected places are invariably the first to be attacked. "Where sentries stand in open, terrorists make surprise frontal attack, in most cases causing instant death. In case the sentries are inside bunkers, terrorists were using grenades followed by random firing to create pandemonium facilitating their entry inside the camps (protected places).

"After entering the campus, the terrorists fire at random and rush towards a safe place to entrench themselves from where they inflict maximum causalities before they are neutralised or make good their escape." The secret memo observed that constructions close to the entrance of the campuses are being preferred to take positions, since they provide the terrorists an "ideal offensive capability" as also better escape opportunities.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : TDP, Cong. accord on House proceedings
Next     : 'Mahavir model' in TB control praised