• Incidentally, today’s attack is the first time that terrorists have targeted a security force camp outside J&K and Naxal-affected states where the force is involved in counter-insurgency operations.

• “Militants have attacked operational bases in Jammu and Kashmir in the past but they have been repulsed. They now seem to have decided to hit soft targets,” Maheshwari said. Suicide bombers had entered the makeshift headquarters of the 144 battalion of the CRPF in a hotel along the Dal Lake in October. Both were killed after a gunbattle. In July, alleged Lashkar militants tried to sneak into a CRPF camp on the outskirts of Srinagar but were shot dead.

• Investigators are also looking at the fact that this is the first time that terrorists have struck in western UP. “So far, all major terror attacks took place in different cities of Eastern UP; Western UP was where they took shelter and carried out indoctrination,” a senior police officer said. Rampur’s neighbouring districts, including Amroha and Moradabad, are considered to be terrorist hideouts.

•Security agencies have not ruled out the involvement of militant outfits like the Harkat ul-Jehad-i-Islami (HuJI), Lashkar-e-Toiba or the Jaish but — in the pattern of recent terror strikes — are also looking at the possibility of local groups.

Two alleged Lashkar men Masood Ahmad and Mohammad Syed, both Pakistan nationals, had escaped from police custody in February last year. “Masood Ahmad had been convicted for an attack on the Jharoda Kalan CRPF camp in 2001,” a police official said. Both are on the run.