Terror attack at BSF camp: JeM terrorists originally targeted Srinagar airport

NEW DELHI: The original target of the fidayeen attack at 182 battalion headquarters of Border Security Force (BSF) on Tuesday morning was the Srinagar airport for which a member of Jaish-e-Mohammad's Afzal Guru Squad had even conducted a reconnaissance of the area, top intelligence sources told TOI.

Srinagar airport is one of the most secure installations in J&K. While civil airport is secured by CRPF, the technical area and outer periphery area of airport is maintained by BSF and Air Force. "It appears that JeM terrorists had conducted a recce of the airport to carry out a spectacular attack there and grab international attention, but since they couldn't find a way to breach the airport security, they decided to attack the BSF camp," said an officer.

As they stormed the BSF camp on Tuesday morning, assistant sub-inspector B K Yadav was killed and three others personnel were injured within few minutes.

Sources said that JeM members killed on Tuesday were part of an 11-member 'Afzal Guru Squad' of Jaishe-Mohammad, which infiltrated into India in two groups on the intervening night of August 16-17. The first seven-member group entered through the line of control (LoC) at Poonch, while the second group having four members sneaked into Gurdaspur on the Indian side from Shakargarh in Narowal (Pakistani Punjab).

Three members of this squad were also involved in August 26 Pulwama district police lines attack, in which eight security personnel were martyred.

An officer said that during Pulwama attack, the suicide attackers wrote the name of 'Afzal Guru Squad' on the wall of police lines.

"The others were since hiding waiting to target camps of military, BSF, CRPF or Jammu and Kashmir police. Three terrorists killed on Tuesday near Srinagar airport are part of same squad," said a source.

Officials added that five members of the squad are still at large due to which all security forces' camps are on high alert. They are said to be trained in targeted firing, longer hostage situations and camouflaging themselves as military personnel.