Srinagar, Apr 2: A woman identified as Hasina Akhtar from Baramulla was arrested after she was caught on camera hurling a bomb at a CRPF camp while wearing a burqa.
The police learned that she had come in contact with the pro-Pakistan Asiya Andrabi who is already in jail for her role in a terror funding case. Hasina was already under the scanner for posting posters of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in Handwara in 2021.
The arrest of Hasina only shows that terror groups which are facing immense heat from the security forces are recruiting women to carry out terror attacks, an official tells agencies.
The plan to set up women wings in Jammu and Kashmir to undertake acts of terror is not a new concept. In 2013 the Intelligence Bureau had warned that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba was training women terrorists to carry out strikes. An all woman terror module called the Dukhtareen-e-Tayiba had been launched in Pakistan and the inputs gathered by the Indian agencies suggested that these women could be used to launch attacks on Indian soil.
A similar wing of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (Bangladesh) was also found. In these modules, women were asked specifically to prepare bombs. They would prepare the bombs in modules in Bengal and then transport them to Bangladesh.
The Dukhtareen-e-Tayiba floated by the Lashkar had trained around 70 women according to a report by the Intelligence Bureau. These women were being trained at Muzzafarabad and were all in the age group of 18 to 25.
The Dukhtareen-e-Tayiba, however, had roped in women only as fidayeens and none of them were being trained to be foot soldiers planting bombs. Each one of them were handpicked by the top brass of the Lashkar and trained.
Headed by Umi Ahmed the Dukhtareen-e-Tayiba has not been used to its full capacity as yet. This is a very key module for the Lashkar and it would be used first on a test basis on the border and later to launch strikes in India. For the Lashkar this is an important module and will give it the surprise element whenever it decides to launch it.
Hasina is part of the Laskhar's plans to further the women's module in Jammu and Kashmir. She is a 10 pass out from the Hanaifa School and had been arrested by the police in 2021. While in jail she had come in contact with Asiya Andrabi and after she came out on bail she worked as an over ground worker for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
“We have been noticing employing of women by terror group of late. Last year, two burka-clad women assisted terrorists in an attack on residential guard of a BJP worker in the outskirts of Srinagar city at Nowgam in which we lost one policeman. Some more such women are on police's radar and we have been handling with them professionally,” Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar told news agency.
