Pulwama: IEDs a potent weapon in the hands of terror outfits

It was the Monday afternoon on October 1, 2001, that three terrorists affiliated with the Pakistan based terror outfit  Jaish-e-Mohammed rammed a car loaded with explosives in the main gate of the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly, 38 people were killed in that attack. 

Dr Farooq Abdullah who was the Chief Minister at that time had said that India was now running out of patience and it should wage a war. "The time has come to wage a war against Pakistan and bomb the militant training camps there. we are running out of patience" senior Abdullah had said. 

On August 10, 2000, terrorists lobbed a hand grenade outside a bank in Srinagar, soon after the blast, police teams and journalists reached the spot. Within a few minutes, there was another powerful blast at the same place, this time an IED planted in a car was detonated, eight police personnel, a photojournalist and a shopkeeper were killed in the blast.

On February 14, 2019, terrorists carried out a suicide attack on the CRPF convoy at Pulwama in which a terrorist identified as Adil Ahmed Dar rammed an explosive loaded vehicle in the CRPF convoy, 40 CRPF personnel were martyred in the attack. 

On March 31 terrorists tried to carry out another attack on the CRPF convoy on the Jammu Srinagar National Highway, however, the attack failed and six terrorists were arrested in this failed bid.

Fast forward to 2020, another attempt by terrorists to target security force convoy was foiled by security forces. With the timely detection of the vehicle loaded with around 50 kgs of explosives, security forces foiled what is being termed as a repeat of Pulwama type attack. 

Read: EXCLUSIVE Details Of Pulwama Terror Attack Accessed: Here's How Forces Foiled IED-car Plot

Director-General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Dilbag Singh while speaking to Republic World said that this was a major success for security forces as they had the inputs of such an attack and same was foiled well in time. "Hizbul Mujahedeen, Jaish or Lashkar they all are one and the same thing. The attack that we foiled had a telltale sign of being the handiwork of Jaish and Lashkar", Dilbag Singh said.

Security experts say that carrying out an IED attack by terrorists is the easiest way for them to carry out maximum casualties on their intended targets. 

"Entering in an encounter with security forces would mean death for the entire group of terrorists, but carrying a suicide attack by a car loaded with explosives would mean that only one terrorist would die and he would end up inflicting more casualties to the forces," a security expert said.

The few examples given at the start of this article demonstrate how an IED can be a potent weapon used by the terrorists.

Read: Centre Issues First Response On Pulwama IED Attempt, Lauds Forces' 'timely Action'

A Republic newsbreak confirmed by Dilbag Singh points out fingers towards Walid Bhai a Pakistani national who underwent training at several training camps in Pakistan, he also underwent training in how to make IED at one of the training camps of Pakistan army before being sent to Kashmir. 

"Walid Bhai is an IED expert who is a Pakistan national and trained there itself.  He recently escaped from an encounter in Kulgam and he is the one who made this IED also", Dilbag Singh told Republic World.

Dilbag Singh also confirmed that this terror attack had a similar modus operandi of that of February 14, 2019 terror attack.
sources say that the IED box used in the Santro was the same as that used in Pulwama in 2019.

"We suspect the possible involvement of Jaish terrorist Ismail Alias Lambu. Ismail was also involved in planning and executing the 2019 Pulwama attack", a source privy to the investigation said.

Sources say that the strategy adopted by the security agencies post the 2019 Pulwama terror attack has foiled many such attacks. 

"A terrorist has to be successful once, whereas we succeed almost every day. We foil not one but many such attempts on a daily basis", he said. 

Read: J&K Police Credit CASO & Preventive Measures For Foiling Pulwama-like Terror Bid

Read: Pulwama-like IED Terror Attack Averted By Security Forces In J&K: 10 Things We Know So Far

The views and opinions expressed are the personal opinions of the author. The facts, analysis, assumptions, and perspective appearing do not reflect the views of Republic TV/ Republic World/ ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd.