J&K LG Manoj Sinha to review security strategies in Srinagar amid rising terrorism threats

NEW DELHI: J&K Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha will chair a meeting of the Unified Headquarters (UHQ) in Srinagar on Thursday where he shall review the security situation and fine-tune counter-terror strategies in the Union territory.

The security review — to be attended by Army, Central paramilitary forces, J&K police and intelligence brass — comes against the backdrop of terrorists gunning down seven employees of an infrastructure project in Ganderbal on Sunday. Most of the victims were non-locals.

Sources said the UHQ meeting is likely to discuss steps to enhance the safety and security of infrastructure projects and their staff; ensure tighter vigil at vital installations; regular patrolling and setting up of police nakas in areas housing settlements of infra project workers, and improved coordination among different security agencies.

The need to identify terrorist modules active in areas where key infrastructure and development projects are coming up, followed by timely action and neutralisation of their members, is likely to be reiterated, said a source.

On Tuesday, the J&K police’s counter-intelligence wing conducted raids across seven Valley districts and detained seven persons operating under the banner of ‘ Tehreek Labaik Ya Muslim’. Intelligence agencies, however, believe that Tehreek Labaik, like The Resistance Front, is nothing but a new Lashker e Taiba front propped up by Pakistan-based masterminds to project terrorism in Kashmir as home-grown and lend Pakistan deniability.

A source said the Tehreek cadres in J&K are locals and active across the districts where raids were carried out on Tuesday — Anantnag, Budgam, Ganderbal, Kulgam, Bandipora Pulwama and Srinagar. “They are controlled by a handler based in Pakistan, and their brief is to motivate, radicalise and recruit young Kashmiris for terror activities,” said a J&K govt officer.

“The intelligence agencies had information about a new LeT front becoming active in the Valley. LeT working through proxies in J&K has been the trend at least for the past three years, and Tehreek Labaik is an addition to this list,” the officer shared.

As per sources, some of the Tehreek Labaik operatives are web designers who prepared posters and web posters to propagate its mission, including via Telegram and Dark Web. “Besides working on radicalising and recruiting Kashmiris into terrorism, they were also known to threaten contractors and extort money from them,” said an IPS officer.