J&K security fine, Amarnath strike was an exception, says government

NEW DELHI: Monday’s terror strike on Amarnath pilgrims was an exception and there weren’t any attacks on the yatra since 2001, top government insiders said. They expressed confidence in the working of the security apparatus in J&K.

In this case, the bus carrying pilgrims that came under fire was probably not even the primary target of the attackers, said an official. “The bus is most likely to have come under crossfire as it was following an SOG vehicle,” the official said.

The vehicle carrying personnel from the anti-insurgency special operations group was attacked twice and when it moved away, the bus came under fire, he added.


“Our security apparatus is working fine,” the official said. The number of terrorists killed is the highest in several years and this has broken the back of terror activities, he added. The political and administrative line of the Centre is that those who attacked the pilgrims would not be spared and the morale of the forces who ensured the yatra went on peacefully for 15 days should not be lowered.

The “spirit of the forces should not be allowed to go down with one incident” and that the Centre is putting all its might to go after those who carried out the attack, the official said. Top government officials have gone through security alerts, and the inputs about potential attacks on Amarnath pilgrims that intelligence agencies provided in recent times were merely alerts and not specific information, he said.

The Centre has refrained from pinning the responsibility on the attack on any group or individual because of the lack of independent inputs. It is, however, keeping a close look at the investigation.