Federal team to visit Indian-controlled Kashmir in wake of deadly attack on paramilitary

A three-member team from India's federal home ministry will visit Indian-controlled Kashmir to find out lapses involved in the deadly attack on paramilitary troopers, officials said Monday.

The team is likely to visit the restive region on Tuesday.

On Saturday, eight paramilitary troopers of India's Central Reserve Police (CRPF) were killed and 21 others wounded after militants attacked their bus in Pampore town of Pulwama district, about 24 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The two militants, who carried out the attack, were also killed in the retaliatory fire from the CRPF men deployed in the town.

"The team try to find out if there were any lapses involved in the attack and will look into the possible increase of cross border infiltration and practices being followed during the movement of paramilitary forces convoy in the region," an official said.

Meanwhile, reports said CRPF has shifted about half-a-dozen of its heavy-armoured Mine Protected Vehicles (MPVs) to effectively secure its troops deployed there.

The paramilitary was using these vehicles for anti-Naxal operations, where left wing rebels were targeting them with improvised explosive devices (IED).

However, of late the usage of these vehicles was minimised.

"We have shifted some of our MPVs from Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-hit areas to the Kashmir valley to effectively secure our men during convoy movements and road opening tasks. The MPVs are ready for deployment for operations in Kashmir. If need arises, we could bring in more,"CRPF Director General K Durga Prasad was quoted by local media as having said.

Last week, six militants were killed during a day in two different gunfights in the region.

A guerrilla war has been going on between militants and Indian troopers stationed in the region since 1989. However, of late Indian policemen too have been trained to fight them.

Gunfights between the militants and Indian troops takes place intermittently across the region.

Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their Independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir. Endit