The state police has restricted the movement of VIPs including politicians and police officers in all militancy infested villages of South Kashmir. The directive follows intelligence inputs that VIPs might be targeted. Last week, the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists in a Fidayeen attack had used steel core bullets which pierced body armour and bulletproof vehicles.
The recovery of these bullets from the encounter site at Lethapora has added to the challenges of the security forces and also the state police which looks after the security of the politicians, ministers and other VIPs in the Kashmir valley. “Yes we have taken all the precautions in South Kashmir after the recovery of these bullets,” said a senior J&K police officer in charge of anti-militancy operations in South Kashmir. He said that initial tests and investigations have proved that terrorists in Kashmir have got green tipped bullets, which are used by the American police, and one of these bullets pierced a bulletproof vehicle also.
Terrorists for the first time in J&K have used such bullets which can pierce bulletproof vehicles and body armours of the security forces. These bullets have been sent for forensic tests outside the state.
In a news report published in an English weekly, an inspector general of the CRPF was quoted as saying that in the Fidayeen attack at Lethpora training centre of the CRPF on 31 December, the bullets they used had pierced through the body armour of the forces. The report further claimed that in this attack, a bulletproof Gypsy of assistant commandant of the CRPF sustained damges.
The use of such bullets by the terrorists could emerge as a security nightmare as all the VIPs use bulletproof vehicles and could now become targets. In the Lethpora Fidayeen attack, three terrorists and five CRPF men were killed.