Jammu: The arrest of a heavily armed terrorist not affiliated to any know terror outfit has left security agencies in Jammu and Kashmir baffled, as they now probe the possibility of a shift in the strategy of Pakistan-based terror outfits of resorting to “lone wolf” attacks.
On Friday, security agencies arrested Firdous Ahmed, an active terrorist from the Bikheryan village in the mountainous Doda district. However, what surprised security agencies was that despite being heavily armed, Firdous was not affiliated with any known terror outfit.
This is for the first time in the over 30 years old insurgency in Kashmir that a heavily armed terrorist not affiliated to any known terror outfit has been arrested.
A press note issued by the Jammu and Kashmir Police soon after the arrest claimed that Firdous, a resident of village Bikheryan Doda, was arrested along with three Chinese pistols, five magazines of the Chinese pistol, 15 rounds and a silencer.
The handout, however, did not mention the group affiliation of Firdous. Now security agencies are investigating if Pakistan and Pakistan-based terror outfits have adopted a different strategy of planning and executing “lone wolf’ type of attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Every possible angle is being investigated, the interrogation is on”, the inspector General of Police Jammu Zone, Mukesh said told CNN News18.
Sources in the security establishments reveal that the arrest of a heavily armed terrorist who is not affiliated to any known terror outfit point towards the shift of strategy by Pakistan to use “lone wolf’ style attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
“If what we doubt turns out to be true, then this is a clear shift in Pakistani strategy to fuel terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. When a terrorist affiliated with a terror outfit carries out an attack, it is easy to point at the origin of the attack, but in case of a lone wolf if it would be difficult to find out the source,” the sources told News18.
To absolve itself from the blame of being involved in abetting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, and to show the global community that terrorism in the Valley was an indigenous movement, new terror outfits such as The Resistant Front and Lashkar-e- Mustafa were created.
However, it was soon established that these two “new outfits” were the frontals of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
“Pakistan wants to get out of the grey list of FATF for which it has to behave like a good boy and, on the other hand, it has to continue supporting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. So they are shifting their strategy, first by rebranding terror outfits and now resorting to lone-wolf type of attacks,” the sources said.
A source privy to the interrogation of Firdous revealed that he was pursuing Journalism from Kashmir and came in touch with Pakistan-based terrorists through social media. “He was radicalised through social media and now we are trying to find out how he got such large quality of arms and ammunitions,” sources said.
The ‘lone wolf’ attacks have been the preferred mode for the ISIS terrorists in European countries as in absence of a module it is not easy to thwart such an attack in advance.
“The lone wolf attack is very difficult to identify and stop in advance as there is no module, no communication between the group. It has only one radicalised man planning and executing a deadly attack of his own,” sources said.
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