Local authorities failed to act on warning by intelligence agencies

UDHAMPUR: The death of two BSF personnel in a terrorist attack on the Jammu-Srinagar highway on Wednesday could have been prevented if forces and local authorities had acted on warnings from intelligence agencies months ago.

Sources said the Union home ministry warned the J&K Police in May about a possible strike on Amarnath pilgrims on the highway where the terrorists opened fire at a BSF convoy and killed two soliders, injuring a dozen others.

Since the first inputs over two

SINCE THE FIRST INPUTS OVER 2 MONTHS AGO, MHA AND IB SENT MULTIPLE ADVISORIES ABOUT UDHAMPUR BEING A POSSIBLE TARGET

months ago, the ministry and the Intelligence Bureau sent multiple advisories about Udhampur being a possible target but no precautionary measures were taken.

This is the second major terror strike in the Udhampur district in four years. A car-bomb blast by the Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2011 killed one person and injured 10 others.

The Udhampur ambush comes nine days after an attack in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district that left seven people dead. But such back-to-back attacks aren’t new in the region.

Terrorists carried out similar twin offensives on Rajbagh police station in Kathua and an army camp in adjoining Samba district in March 2014. But Wednesday’s attack is unusual as it occurred in an otherwise-peaceful district, the headquarters of Indian Army’s Northern Command.