A Surge In Attacks On Jammu-Srinagar Highway Since 2013
Since 2013, there has been a surge of militant attacks on the highway, and the brain behind such highway attacks, according to the police, was Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Chief Commander Abu Qasim.
Qasim, according to the police, infiltrated Jammu and Kashmir in 2013. On 24 June 2013, Qasim along with his squad, launched a major strike on the army convoy on the highway near Hyderpora, Srinagar, killing eight army soldiers and injuring 16.
On 6 June 2015, the Lashkar outfit carried out another deadly attack on the Border Security Force (BSF) convoy on Srinagar-Jammu national highway near Udhampur in Jammu. Two BSF men were killed and eight were injured, when a group of militants attacked a convoy near Samroli in Udhampur district. Qasim, who had allegedly masterminded the attack, was killed in October that year.
Qasim was replaced by another foreign militant, Abu Dujana, who took over Lashkar-e-Taiba’s command in the Valley. Dujana, who reportedly escaped from dozens of cordons, was an ‘A++ militant’ as per police records, with a bounty of Rs 12.5 lakh on his head.
Police believed that he was the mastermind behind many attacks, including the June 2016 ambush on a paramilitary convoy at Pampore, on the old highway, in which eight CRPF troopers were killed and 20 troopers injured.
On 26 June 2016, eight paramilitary CRPF troopers were killed and 20 others injured when militants attacked their convoy at Frestbal near Pampore on the old Srinagar-Jammu national highway.
Prior to this attack, on 3 June, militants ambushed the Border Security Force (BSF) convoy near Bijbehara on Srinagar-Jammu national highway and killed three BSF personnel and critically injured four others.