Three militants, who attacked the BSF camp outside Srinagar on Monday, were affiliated to Jaish-e-Mohammad’s Afzal Guru Squad, senior police officials said.
The squad consists of highly trained militants who have previously carried out several high-profile attacks, including January 2016 attack on the Pathankot airbase and September 2016 Uri attack in which 19 soldiers were killed.
In the past three years, it has also carried out attack on Army bases at Mohra and Tangdhar in north Kashmir and at Kathua and Samba in the the Jammu region. The squad specialises in carrying out fidayeen attacks.
The Afzal Guru Squad was formed in January 2014. Its formation was announced by Jaish-e-Mohammad chief and militant cleric Maulana Masood Azhar at a ceremony to inaugurate a book written by Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, who was hanged in the Tihar jail in February 2013.
The militant outfit was formed in January 2000 by the militant cleric, days after his release from the Tihar jail in exchange for release of passengers aboard the hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC-814. Azhar had spent six years in Indian jails before his release in December 1999.
In the past two months, the Afzal Guru Squad has carried out two deadly fidayeen attacks, including a attack on the District Police Lines in Pulwama and Monday’s attack on the BSF at Humhama outside Srinagar.
“The three militants who attacked the BSF camp are suspected to have infiltrated into the Kashmir valley in July this year,” Munir Khan, IGP, Kashmir, said.
“It was a big group which had infiltrated. Six to seven are now left and we need to neutralise them fast,” Khan said.
“Jaish-e-Mohammad is no doubt a threat because they believed in these kinds of (fidayeen) attacks,” he said.
The Jaish-e-Mohammad group of 15 to 17 militants, which had infiltrated in July and set up bases in south Kashmir, is led by two foreigners identified as Abdul Mateen and Muhammad Bhai.
Jaish-e-Mohammad’s Afzal Guru Squad specialises in fidayeen strikes
