Jammu and Kashmir Police had informed central agencies about their operation of planting 22 SIM cards in Lashkar-e-Toiba ranks three months ago. They had also passed on the numbers of the mobile phones and information on the Lashkar’s plan to carry out a major strike outside Jammu and Kashmir.

The startling revelation adds another example to the many instances of specific alerts leading up to the attack on Mumbai last month not having been acted upon. The Sunday Express had reported that Mukhtar Ahmad, a Jammu and Kashmir Police constable arrested by the Kolkata Police in New Delhi in connection with the attacks, was actually on an undercover mission to infiltrate the Lashkar.

Ahmad’s arrest has reduced the country’s most experienced counter-terrorism police force to a state of shock. “This arrest has compromised all our undercover work,” a senior officer told The Indian Express. “Ahmad was staying with Sub-Inspector Latief Ahmad, and both were arrested,” a J&K police officer privy to the operation said. “They showed their movement orders and begged to be allowed to speak to the superiors of the raiding party, but the raiding party didn’t agree. Ahmad was handcuffed and paraded like a criminal. The proper procedure would have been to enquire from our superiors and check the antecedents of our man before arresting him.”

J&K Police officers complain other states are not keen to utilise the former’s anti-terrorism expertise in their investigations. “We have been trying to create trans-state linkages to help prevent attacks like the one in Mumbai. We know Lashkar and other militant groups better than anyone else, and we have been saying we are ready to chip in. But other states prefer to go solo,” the officer said.

... contd.