Exclusive: JeM’s Afzal Guru Squad Plans Eid Suicide Attack in J&K

One of the militants killed at DPL Pulwama had scribbled “Revenge for Afzal Guru’s execution” in his own blood.

One of the militants killed at DPL Pulwama had scribbled “Revenge for Afzal Guru’s execution” with his blood on the surface of a wall.

(Photo: Harsh Sahani/The Quint)

Police and security forces in Jammu and Kashmir have intercepted communications indicating the possibility of major fidayeen attacks in the Valley around Eid-ul-Azha festivities beginning on 2 September.

On Saturday, 26 August, three militants, purportedly cadres of the ‘Afzal Guru Squad’ of Maulana Masood Azhar’s Pakistan-based jihadist organisation, Jaish-e-Mohammad, were killed by security forces in a suicide offensive in which eight personnel of the J&K Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) got killed at District Police Lines in Pulwama, southern Kashmir.

Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Zone, Munir Khan, told The Quint that the security and intelligence agencies had intercepted a telephonic conversation between Jaish-e-Mohammad’s Pakistan-based commander Waleed and local operatives of the designated global terrorist group.

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We have heard Waleed telling his Kashmiri contacts that a fresh group of suicide bombers had infiltrated into the Valley and it was on way to the given destination.

Munir Khan, IGP

‘We Are Sending Fresh Jawans’

In the intercept, Waleed is heard praising Jaish’s militants who left eight personnel —four each from J&K Police and CRPF — dead and six injured before they were eliminated in the day-long operation at DPL Pulwama.

“You are soon going to get bigger news, the news that will make us all happy. We are sending fresh jawans. They will reach you in next two days”, Waleed assures his field commander in Urdu. In another conversation, he is heard extolling the “sacrifices” given by the Jaish fidayeen at Pulwama.

After reciting a quatrain on “sacrifices”, Waleed tells his contact that “so many baniyas would be sacrificed around Eid-e-Qurban”.

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IGP Munir Khan said that the Police and security forces had learned about Jaish-e-Mohammad’s plans of some fidayeen attacks including one around Srinagar, around September 2 and “all precautionary measures” had been taken to pre-empt and fail such attempts.

Even as some officials insist that the fresh group of fidayeen had infiltrated through LoC in Poonch district of Jammu, Khan claimed that it had crossed into the State from Shakargarh area of Pakistan, International Border in Samba and Kathua districts of Jammu.

We are pretty aware about a group of five to six terrorists in Zainpathri area of Pulwama. Groups of two to three militants with suicide missions have been spotted in Bangdara (Anantnag), Tral and Pampore (Pulwama). We are sure to eliminate some of them before they strike our camp.

Munir Khan, IGP

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135 Militants Killed in Last 4 Months

He asserted that after Police and security forces killed as many as 135 militants of LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen, including over 20 of their top commanders in the last four months, both the organisations had now “hired” fresh recruits from Jaish in Pakistan for some attacks to strike a wave of terror.

Interestingly, one of the three militants killed at DPL Pulwama had scribbled “AGS (Afzal Guru Squad). Afzal Guru kaa inteqaam (revenge for Afzal Guru’s execution)” with his blood on a wall.

It was before Jaish’s spokesperson Hasan Shah claimed that the militants of his organisation had launched an attack on the Police camp.

Even before China blocked New Delhi’s diplomatic initiative to label Masood Azhar, one of the three militants set free in exchange for hostages of the Indian Airlines flight 814 at Kandahar in December 1999, a terrorists, Jaish had been active in J&K and Punjab with high profile suicide missions.

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On 27 July 2015, it was reportedly involved in the fidayeen attack in Dina Nagar, in Gurdaspur district of Punjab, in which seven persons, including one SP, were killed. Three militants died in the attack. It was the first ever terrorist attack in Punjab after Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassination in Chandigarh on 31 August 1995.

In January 2016, six militants of Jaish-e-Mohammad were eliminated in their fidayeen attack on Air Force Station at Pathankot. Seven NSG, Army and IAF officials were also killed in this attack.

Jaish’s deadliest fidayeen strike on an Indian Army camp occurred on 18 September 2016, near headquarters of 12th Brigade in Uri, close to LoC in Kashmir, when as many as 17 soldiers were killed by four suicide bombers.

(The writer is a Srinagar-based journalist. He can be reached @ahmedalifayyaz.)

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