The Hindu : Army formations on full alert

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 29, 2003

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Army formations on full alert

By Our Special Correspondent

The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, greeting people at the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar on Saturday. — AP

NEW DELHI JUNE 28. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) was briefed on today's `fidayeen' (suicide) attack on a Dogra battalion camp on the outskirts of Jammu.

The high number of Army casualties prompted the discussion at the meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and convened primarily to take stock of his China visit, reliable sources said.

The Army has put its formations in Jammu and Kashmir on full alert. The attack came as the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, concluded his three-day visit to the State.

Senior Army sources said here that it was too early to say who was responsible for the attack, but that they were following ``leads on the terrorists and their linkages''.

Considerable planning had gone into the attack and the militants had targeted a unit whose catchment area for recruitment is primarily the Jammu region.

Today's is the second major attack on an Army installation in two years and the first since the Prime Minister's peace initiative announced in Srinagar last month.

The previous attack, at Kaluchak in Jammu region, had claimed civilian casualties, mainly the kin of Army personnel, and was what provoked Operation Parakram, the massive troop mobilisation on the border with Pakistan.

However, Government sources did not compare today's attack with Kaluchak. Such attacks were to be expected and the country's security forces had to exercise greater vigilance.

So far, officials are continuing with the earlier formulation that firefights in Jammu and Kashmir should not be the barometer for assessing the moves to create normality on the ground and the pace for Indo-Pakistan peace initiatives.

Senior Home Ministry sources said the majority of the State's population supported the efforts of the Mufti Mohammed Government to restore normality but there would always be elements that were inimical to peace returning to the State.

Though India had to deal with infiltration, officials seemed to separate this issue with what had taken place at the Army camp. Today's attack, they said, would in no way impact the peace process initiated by the Prime Minister.

The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, the Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, the National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra, and the Foreign Secretary, Kanwal Sibal attended the meeting.

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