Speaking to Deccan Herald on the phone, Director and Inspector General of Police, UP, Vikram Singh said the suspicion is largely on the JeM.

“This could be their doing because of the modus operandi used in the operation. It was a fidayeen attack, killing seven CRPF jawans and one civilian. Usually, the JeM is known for carrying out fidayeen attacks unlike the Lashkar-e-Toiba, which uses suicide bombers,” said Mr Singh.

Uttar Pradesh has in the recent past had some serious brushes with Islamic extremist groups starting with the arrest of two militants in Lucknow, serial court blasts and botched attempt at Chief Minister Mayawati. The CRPF attack is the most recent one.

Training police
“We have been targetted but we are not going to be the soft underbelly for further militant targets. We are going to hound them. We are training the UP police in best counter terrorist practices available in the world.

We will equip them with the latest ammunition, communication gadgets etc. We will shortly have a specialised anti-terrorist force trained to handle militancy,” he said. “We cannot part with further details as it will be counter productive,” said the state police chief. He did not rule out the possibility of local support to the extremist groups.
The JeM was formed by the notorious militant Masood Azhar, who was released from prison in India in December 1999, in exchange of 155 hijacked Indian Airlines hostages.

The group’s aim is to unite Kashmir with Pakistan. It is politically aligned with the radical political party, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazlur Rehman faction (JUI-F) and has huge armed support in Pakistan and southern Kashmir and Doda regions in the Valley.

The JeM cadres use light and heavy machine guns, assault rifles, mortars, improvised explosive devices and rocket grenades.