Police name LeT, Kashmir unites against yatra attack
Shadow of unheeded intel warnings looms over probe
SRINAGAR: Police blamed Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba on Tuesday for killing seven Amarnath Yatra pilgrims amid mounting evidence of security lapses in the hours before the attack that triggered widespread condemnation across the country.
Opposition parties blamed the government for not doing enough to stop the militant strike on a bus carrying 61 pilgrims — most of them from Gujarat — and J&K deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh said the authorities will investigate how the attack occurred despite prior intelligence warnings.
Police sources said security forces had recovered empty cartridges and underbarrel grenade launchers from the site of the attack — all with Pakistani markings.
Locals said six persons, including two brothers, were detained for questioning on Monday night.
A top Kashmir police officer pinned the blame on Lashkar-eTaiba after initial investigations and named a “Pakistani militant”, Abu Ismail, as being behind theattack that also injured 19 people.
“The investigation is on,” inspector general of police Muneer Khan told Hindustan Times. But the outfit denied any role and called the attack “reprehensible”.
In Delhi and in Srinagar, highlevel review meetings were held on Tuesday. Home minister Rajnath Singh was briefed by national security adviser Ajit Doval, the chiefs of the Intelligence Bureau and R&AW, while in Kashmir, governor NN Vohra and chief minister Mehbooba Mufti met officials separately.
Meanwhile, a fresh batch of 3,200-odd pilgrims left for the remote Himalayan cave on Tuesday. The deceased and most of the injured were sent back to their homes on a special plane. Army chief general Bipin Rawat arrived in Srinagar on Tuesday to review security.
Throughout the day, the focus remained on several unanswered questions that pointed to holes in an otherwise elaborate security arrangement, comprising more than 40,000 personnel, that cloaks the annual pilgrimage.
The bus, with a Gujarat number plate, was not registered with the Amarnath shrine board and had left Srinagar for Jammu at 4.30pm. The cut-off time for vehicles on the Amarnath route is 5.30pm. There was no official answer as to why the bus, attacked at about 8.20pm, was allowed to travel for more than three hours on a national highway without any security check posts stopping the vehicle.
Senior officials told HT that security was usually withdrawn at 5.30pm – a decision that likely made the bus a sitting duck for terrorists. Om Sai Travels, the operator of the bus, was not registered to any of the tour and travel operators’ associations in the state.