The police have claimed Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) was behind the killing of three BJP leaders in Kulgam district on Thursday.
On a day his son completed his first year, BJP leader Fida Hussain Yatoo was laid to rest in his native village on Friday. He, along with two other BJP officer bearers, was gunned down by terrorists in YK Pora area of South Kashmir’s Kulgam district late on Thursday night.
The entire neighbourhood in his village witnessed a surcharged atmosphere. Chanting patriotic slogans, local villagers and party workers attended the funeral prayers. Senior BJP leaders, including J&K Chief Ravinder Raina, too attended the last rites and visited the family of Yatoo to offer condolences on behalf of the top brass of the party.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir range, Vijay Kumar Friday claimed that LeT had executed the killing of three BJP leaders.
“The names of LeT militants — a local militant from Dooru, Nisar Khanday; and Abbas from Khudwani who was previously associated with Hizbul Mujahideen and is now with LeT and also claims to be from TRF — are cropping up. The involvement of these two is there, but there may be a foreign terrorist involved as well in the attack,” he said.
IGP Kumar also appealed to the protected persons in the valley not to move around without their security.
He said, “We have provided PSOs and security to 157 BJP workers, and nearly 30 have been provided with guards and we will provide more security to those who have severe threat perception.”
Referring to the issue of providing security cover to the protected persons, IGP said they had prepared a list of 1,619 vulnerable persons who were lodged in secure locations before the Centre’s decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 last year.
“We had made a list of 1,619 vulnerable persons before August 5 (last year) and we had kept them in different hotels in secure areas. We had kept Fida in a hotel in Pahalgam where he stayed for three weeks. Recently, he gave an undertaking and left the hotel. We are investigating what they were doing in a car in an area far away from home,” he said.
Sharing preliminary details of the investigations IGP said, an Alto car used by the LeT terrorists has been seized by the police. “Three terrorists came in a car belonging to a local terrorist identified as Altaf. Fida Hussain was with his two colleagues in a car when these terrorists fired indiscriminately on them from close range. They received grave injuries and succumbed on the way to the hospital”.
Kumar said after the attack, the terrorists fled in the same car towards Achbal area, from where the car was seized this morning.
Asked whether the attack was pre-planned, the IGP said it was possible.
“It seems so to us as well because what were they doing away from home, waiting for someone or not, then terrorists came, attacked them and then ran away to Achbal. There is a chance that it was a pre-planned attack and we are investigating it and will soon solve it,” he said.
On a question as to whether the attacks on BJP activists -- instances of which have increased over the last few months -- were carried out at the local level by the terrorists or did the ultras get orders from Pakistan, the IGP said this was part of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.
“You know it all. Recently, media persons also received threats through ‘Kashmir Fight’, an online medium which is run in Pakistan, or the TRF website. They claimed the attack yesterday on ‘Kashmir Fight’ as well. This is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and this proves that these killings take place on the orders from Pakistan,” he said.
As a countermeasure to such attacks, Kumar appealed to the protected persons to follow the standard operating procedures (SOP) laid down by the security agencies for their movement and not to move around in vulnerable areas especially without their security.
