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| EDI attack was well-planned, 'militants knew about main building' | | | Hyder Ali
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Feb 24: In a major setback for the investigations into the deadly 3-day gunfight at the Entrepreneur Development Institute in the saffron town of Pampore, the control room, which recorded the entire CCTV footage was destroyed by the militants, a hint which strengthens the belief that the armed guerillas were well-versed with the campus spanning over 16 acres of land.
Highly placed sources said though the main computer server, which houses the entire database of the EDI activities was safe, the control room where the CCTV footage were stored was reduced to rubbles in the gunfight. "No video footage is there," they said.
Sources said the militants must have been in know of the room that housed the CCTV footage that they destroyed it instantly after storming the five-floor main complex, where the gunfight lasted for three long days till Monday afternoon.
Besides the CCTV server, the lift system in the building was also destroyed.
Security analysts said the militants must have deliberately destroyed the CCTV footage server-room and the lift system as a part of the two-pronged strategy.
"Destroying CCTV footage means to leave the intelligence agencies clueless about their (militant) movement which suggests that didn't want to leave behind any video evidence," said security analysts adding now it would be difficult to ascertain if the same militants had earlier done recce of the building.
"The second target, of the infrastructure, was blowing up of the lift, which means they (militants) wanted to make the mobility of forces difficult during the operation to neutralize them," they said.
The analysts said the twin destructions have vindicated the theory that militants had already done recce of the campus, and that it was a well-planned attack. "This strategic destruction particularly that of the CCTV footage has cleared it beyond reasonable doubt that the militants were well-versed with the configuration of the building and knew what to strike at and where to hide," the official sources said adding the militants were highly trained.
They said otherwise the architecture and the topography of the EDI campus spanning over 15 acres of land is so complex that it would be difficult for any novice visitor to decide on where to take advantageous position. "For that matter, it took hours for even the Army to understand the complexity of the structure and they had to take assistance from the design maps of the building to decide the strategy on neutralizing the militants," the sources said.
While this is one part of the story, there's another aspect. Some of the EDI staffers said that the electronic gadgets including mobile phones and laptops, over two dozen in number, which they had left behind were missing from the ground and the first floor of the main building. "When these rooms where not destroyed in the gunfight, where the hell have our gadgets gone?" The complainants said. Sources said some of the gadgets could be under the scanner of the investigative agencies.
On February 20, after opening fire on a CRPF convoy on the highway on the outskirts of Srinagar, that left two CRPF jawans dead and over a dozen injured, the militants had sneaked into the nearby EDI campus.
The militants had asked the employees there to leave the main complex even as they themselves took positions at advantageous heights inside the building.
The employees were, however, asked to leave behind their belongings particularly mobile phones and laptops.
The scared staff had subsequently taken shelter in one of the nearby buildings while security forces laid cordon around the campus.
The civilians were subsequently evacuated in a joint operation by police and CRPF. But one of the staffers, a gardener got killed during the evacuation when bullet hit his abdomen.
The encounter which ended with the death of all the three militants also claimed lives of five security force personnel. Among the deceased were two Army captains including one from Udhampur area of Jammu province. |
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