J&K on high alert as contributions from Pakistan cautions of another attack in Pulwama

New Delhi: In a rare development, Pakistan is said to have shared information on a possible terrorist attack in Kashmir’s Pulwama district, probably near Awantipora using a car borne explosive device, a report in the newspaper said on Sunday quoting a senior unnamed security official in Srinagar.

As an outcome, the whole security matrix in Jammu and Kashmir has been on high caution since the data was shared a couple of days prior, the report said. The assault, the Pakistanis state, is being intended to retaliate for the killing of Zakir Musa who headed an al-Qaeda associate and was killed by Indian security work force a month ago. 

In New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs did not promptly remark on the issue. The Pakistan High Commission and the US international safe haven in New Delhi also did not remark. 

"We are perusing Pakistan's sharing of this data in two different ways. It is either an approach to ensure that they stay away from fault if a major assault happens, in light of the fact that they have effectively imparted the data to the Americans," said a security official cited by the News report in Kashmir said. "Or on the other hand it is a veritable endeavor to advise us ahead after they discovered, especially in light of the fact that the data is with respect to an arrangement to assault by individuals from an al-Qaeda connected gathering," the official cited by the paper said. 

“We also understand that any activities of terrorists linked to al-Qaeda are seen differently by them (Pakistan)," the official was quoted as saying.

If Pakistan did pass on the information about the possible attack, it will be seen as a rare case of Islamabad warning New Delhi of an impending terrorist attack. While Pakistan has reportedly cooperated with the US and British intelligence agencies to thwart major attacks, such cooperation with India has not been forthcoming since Pakistan



views those terrorist groups targeting India as helping its cause in keeping an insurgency in Kashmir on the boil.

The timing too of the warning – if it was passed on to India – is interesting. Pakistan, which is on the grey list of the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for not seen to be doing enough to curb finances from being diverted to terrorist groups based on its soil, is to be reviewed at an FATF conference in Orlando this week. The central government has been pushing for Pakistan to be put on the FATF’s black list especially after the 14 February Pulwama terrorist attack.

At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Bishkek, which Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan also attended, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Chinese President Xi Jinping that Pakistan needs to create an atmosphere “free of terrorism", but at this stage, New Delhi has not seen that from Islamabad. Modi also said he has made efforts to initiate peace with Pakistan, but his efforts have been “derailed."

Musa, who launched and headed an al-Qaeda affiliate called Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind in Kashmir after breaking away from the Hizbul Mujahideen in May 2017, was killed in an operation in the Tral area last month. Police sources said Ansar, which had an estimated membership of about a dozen militants, is now down to “two to three" militants.

The 14 February Pulwama suicide assault slaughtered 40 staff of the Central Reserve Police Force making strains take off among India and Pakistan. India shelled a psychological oppressor preparing camp in Pakistan's Balakot district on 26 February and Pakistan in countering attempted to target Indian army bases in Kashmir. There was coordinated worldwide weight on Pakistan and, weeks after the fact, China too joined the worldwide agreement at the United Nations to boycott Maulana Masood Azhar, head of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, the gathering suspected to have been behind the Pulwama attack.