The Mumbai attack has put the international spotlight on the Lashkar-e-Toiba. But it is Kashmir that has been the centre of their operation, where they launched their first suicide attack in 1999. Muzamil Jaleel follows the Lashkar trail in the Valley

In the scenic valley of Madhumati, a 5-km stretch from Bandipore town halts at Aham Sharief. Then an hour-long steep trek through a muddy path takes you to Bhootu—a village hidden inside dense pine forests. This is where the Lashkar-e-Toiba launched its first ever suicide attack—on a BSF camp near Bandipore—from, more than nine years ago. Villagers still remember the day. “They had sent Suleman to attack Madar camp,” says Manzoor Reshi. “In those days this village was filled with them (militants).”

It was July 1999 and Bhootu was then known in local militant jargon as Brare Kanee or ‘attics of cats’ for its strategic location. There is no road link to this hamlet high up in the Chittarnar forests, making it inaccessible to the security forces and a safe hideout for the militants. The militants hid here for years till the army finally set up a camp here in 2002.

The villagers remember seeing the Lashkar men leave that evening to trek across the peak and cross over to Arin valley. “They would come and go routinely. Nobody would dare ask any questions,” says Reshi. In the dead of the night, Suleman led Lashkar’s first suicide attack. Three militants sneaked into the vast and highly fortified Border Security Force camp at Madar, next to Bandipore town. They scaled the eastern wall of the camp, entered the residential compound and killed six BSF men, including DIG S.K. Chakravarty and two other officers. The militants holed themselves up inside a family quarter. The government had to call the National Security Guards and paratroopers of the army. The commando operation took 30 hours before Suleman and his two accomplices were killed.

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