To ensure infra projects aren't hit, LG orders security boost

NEW DELHI: Concerned that Sunday’s terror attack targeting employees of an infrastructure project in Jammu & Kashmir ’s Ganderbal may affect the confidence level of major infrastructure companies executing projects in the UT, LG Manoj Sinha on Monday ordered beefing up of security forces’ presence in residential areas of employees and workers engaged in ongoing projects.

Sinha also instructed setting up police nakas on access roads. He instructed the security forces to step up counter-terror operations in the vicinity of infra projects and neutralise all the terrorists who may be active there.

Sources in security establishment told TOI that while The Resistance Front (TRF) has claimed responsibility for the gunning down of seven persons on Sunday’s strike, the modus operandi carries imprint of Lashkar-e-Taiba .

“TRF is just a front created by Pakistan-based LeT to project terror strikes in J&K as ‘local’ acts and help Islamabad maintain deniability in the face of global pressure to rein in terror groups operating from its soil,” an intelligence officer told TOI.

While the security forces are still analysing why an infrastructure project was targeted, a possibility being explored is if it was meant to stall or slow down the pace of infra development in J&K.

Since the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K in 2019, Centre has undertaken a major infrastructure and connectivity push, leading infrastructure players from all over India to take up projects in the UT. “The attack was possibly meant to create a sense of terror or fear among the companies executing big projects in J&K and their resident staff. The high casualties in Ganderbal could make the private entities somewhat wary of bidding for projects, as a good part of their staff in specialised roles is drawn from outside J&K,” said an intelligence officer.

It is to rule out this eventuality that J&K LG Manoj Sinha on Sunday and Monday reviewed security of residential areas of employees and staff engaged in different infrastructure projects in Kashmir and issued instructions that any gaps be identified and immediately plugged.

As for timing of the attack, given that recent J&K assembly poll passed off smoothly and peacefully, an officer said “the Ganderbal strike is a message by the terrorists that they are very much active in J&K and will continue targeting non-Kashmiris who come to J&K to earn their livelihood, even if it is for J&K’s own development” .

Five of the seven men targeted Sunday were non-locals.