Amarnath Yatra Attack: Security Breaches to be Blamed for Tragedy

Security lapses like ignoring intelligence inputs & allowing passage to an unregistered bus led to Amarnath tragedy.

An investigation by The Quint reveals that there was no “crossfire” between militants and security forces or police. None of the militants or soldiers or police personnel were injured.

Who precisely did it and why, continues to be a matter of investigation but the bus clearly seems to be the target of a pre-planned, well-organised and focused attack. The gunmen had laid down volleys of AK-47 fire apparently from the front on the windscreen and from the right side, straight onto the passengers, mostly females.

All the seven died on the spot. When I reached the spot in around seven minutes from my office, I found them dead. Nineteen more were injured.

Altaf Khan, SSP, Anantnag

Khan claimed that just a short distance away, there was a police naka that had been targeted first. There is no evidence of such an attack on police or forces.

On 28 July 2012, the police had similarly played down a grenade attack on a tourist bus in Bijbehara and claimed it to be a “gas cylinder blast” in spite of the fact that the lever of a grenade had been seized at the spot. Three female tourists of a Mumbai-based NRI family died in that blast.

Also Read: Amarnath Yatra Attack: What a Mature Response Could Look Like

We made a statement as directed by top officials in the government. They had apprehensions that the news of grenade attack on tourists would raise questions on the security arrangement for the yatra that was underway.

Police official in Bijbehara, on condition of anonymity

Security Lapses by Police and Shrine Board

The Gujarat bus’ windscreen was shattered into smithereens, but left its stickers intact.

The bold letter ‘B’ on a white sticker declares it as a yatra bus for the base camp of Baltal. The pink sticker, issued and pasted by the men of the security wing of J&K police at Baltal, declares it as a bus of pilgrims.

It remains an unanswered question as to how the police and the shrine board authorities permitted an unregistered bus to Baltal and back towards Jammu.

Another unanswered question is how 60-odd unregistered pilgrims were permitted access through Access Control Gate of Domail near Baltal without the mandatory medical check-up. From Jammu to Baltal and back to Anantnag, this bus has crossed over 20 checkpoints.

“On sighting the pink sticker, the police nakas are bound to stop all unescorted vehicles, contact the nearest PCR and arrange for police or CRPF escort up to the Jawahar Tunnel. That is the standard operating procedure”, said another well-placed official who revealed that on a daily basis, the forces report passage of around 10 percent unregistered vehicles to their senior officers.

He said that the highway’s most dangerous part from Pampore to Khannabal had been named as “Jhelum Corridor” and there was no question of a pink sticker bus being allowed without three escort vehicles.

“One needs to investigate whether such drivers are permitted out of sheer carelessness and laxity of the security drill or against payment of bribes”, he said while indicating serious chinks in the armour of the security forces and police managing the yatra.

Each unauthorised driver allegedly coughs up Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 for the officials regulating the yatra traffic. “Why doesn’t the shrine board penalise such drivers?” asked the senior police official.

Also Read: Amarnath Yatra Is Usually a Watertight System. What Went Wrong?

Warnings Ignored

A circular titled ‘Most Urgent Top Secret’ from the office of Inspector General of Police, Kashmir zone, issued on 25 June reads, “Intelligence input received from SSP Anantnag reveals that the terrorists have been directed to eliminate 100 to 150 yatris and about 100 police officers/officials. The attack may be in the form of standoff fire on yatra convoy which they believe will result in flaring of communal tensions throughout the nation.”

All the officers/officials deployed on ground need to be directed to remain alert and maintain utmost vigil and take all precautionary measures to defeat the nefarious designs of these anti-national elements.

Circular issued by IGP, Kashmir Zone (25 June 2017)

Senior Superintendent of Police, Altaf Khan, who joined in Anantnag on 21 June, received this information on 23 June – six days before the annual Amarnath shrine pilgrimage in Kashmir started on 29 June.

Also Read: Alert or Not: Could Amarnath Terror Attack Have Been Prevented?

Pilgrims or Tourists?

As per routine, it didn’t take long to trigger the blame game. While IGP Kashmir Muneer Khan claimed that the attack had been executed by the LeT, the LeT spokesperson levelled customary allegations of the attack being the ‘handiwork of the Indian security forces to defame the mujahideen’.

Khan told The Quint:

We have reasons to believe that it was a group of two Pakistani and two Kashmiri militants of LeT led by Abu Ismail. We are sure to get them in the next 10 or 15 days.

Muneer Khan, IGP Kashmir

He said that the yatra would operate as usual, as the police and security forces would upgrade the security bandobust and wipe out the terror module “very soon”.

Why were the police and security forces caught unawares despite an intelligence alert?

We continue to receive such inputs almost every day. These are subject to verification and corroboration.

Muneer Khan, IGP Kashmir

Khan emphasised that the militants had targeted a bus not registered with the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board. According to him, its passengers were “tourists” who had left the yatra base camp of Baltal on 8 July. On 10 July at 5:00 pm, they left Srinagar for the shrine town of Katra, Jammu.

The bus, the IGP said, had suffered some technical fault near Awantipora and the “tourists” spent some time while purchasing saffron on the highway. The CRPF’s road observation parties wind up at 7:00 pm even as the routine yatra convoys cross the Valley’s entry and exit point at Jawahar Tunnel around 2:00 pm.

Also Read: Manhunt on to Nab Ismail, Alleged Mastermind of Amarnath Attack

Playing Down the Incident

In his television interviews, Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Dr Nirmal Singh said that the authorities would find out if there was any security lapse. He, nonetheless, held the driver and the “tourists” squarely responsible.

These Yatris had darshan on July 8 then they visited other places in Srinagar, were on their own: Dy CM Nirmal Singh via @ndtv @RazdanNidhi

— Shujaat Bukhari (@bukharishujaat) July 11, 2017

Interestingly, his own government announced a substantial cash reward for the driver for his “bravery and application of mind”. The Cabinet appreciated that the driver Salim had saved over 50 pilgrims on board.

The officials and ministers in Mehbooba Mufti’s government made clumsy efforts to play down the death of seven yatris and pass it off as the result of “crossfire” between militants and security forces. It was possibly to assure the nation that none of the pilgrim buses had been attacked and that the yatra was progressing smoothly. “It was an unregistered vehicle. I don’t know what the driver and these tourists were doing there. I don’t know why the bus was plying beyond 7:00 pm”, the Deputy CM said.

A police bulletin claimed that the bus with “tourists” had been caught in crossfire between militants and a police naka. Ironically, this term was used in news stories, from Pakistan to US, to establish that the militants in Kashmir had not attacked the unarmed civilian pilgrims. It helped the separatists, to some extent, protect the moral compass of their “freedom struggle”.

Also Read: Amarnath Yatra Attack: Conspiracy Theory Sours Kashmir’s Shock

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