Terrorists are planning to strike the faithful with improvised explosive devices wearing army fatigues

Vaishno Devi shrine on terror radar

Terrorists are planning to strike the faithful with improvised explosive devices wearing army fatigues

Frustrated with their inability to carry out any major terror attack in recent past the Pakistan based militants

are looking forward to new targets and strategy to make some impact.

Smart bombs
"There could be a marked shift in the nature of their attacks. Instead of gun battles, which have a limited impact terrorist's could carry out more IED blasts at some major places. The target could be religious places visited by large number of pilgrims," said an officer on condition of anonymity.u00a0

Following the inputs the security of Vaishno Devi shrine has been beefed up with more para-military personnel. Central Reserve Police Force, (CRPF) which is responsible for securing the shrine has increased number of armed personnel and there are proposals for increasing the number of metal detectors.

Army disguise
He further informed that the terrorists could try to sneak in into important places under the garb of uniforms worn by military and para-military soldiers.
"This trend was noticed few years ago also. The terror groups had managed to eliminate few important personalities as they were wearing military camouflage," he said.
According to sources in intelligence agencies and CRPF, which is responsible for internal security- the main reason behind the changing tactics could be increased security in the state.

Security stepped up
"Right from the International Border (IB), Line of Control (LoC) till major cities the security has gone up. The frustration is increasing more after their repeated attempts to infiltrate failed," said a senior CRPF officer on anonymity. Sources also informed the militants could target apple farmers to extort money and solve some of their financial issues.

Agencies in tizzy
But what has left the security and intelligence agencies worried is their possible plan of using IED to maximize the impact of attacks. "IEDs have a better range than machine guns and it means low collateral damage on the parts of the militants," said the CRPF official.

Antony alert

Defence Minister AK Antony in a recent press conference informed that year 2010 could see a heightened terror attack in the state. Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor also added that more than 700 terrorists are waiting for the snow to melt to infiltrate into India. The lull in the insurgency was also broken recently after few terror attacks in Srinagar.

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