Army calls mobile tower attacks terror outfit 'Fringe' group

The army today said that the Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI) group which was behind the attacks on mobile towers in the Valley appears to be a "fringe" element, adding that such threats were investigated seriously.
"As far as LeI is concerned, by and large it appears to be a fringe group which is trying to create a sense of terror in the areas in which they are operating," General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Chinar Corps in Srinagar, Lt Gen Subrata Saha said.
"There is another group Tehreek-e-Taliban, there are some posters that have come, that is still being investigated because any such indicator, it is my belief, must be taken seriously and investigated to its logical conclusion," he said.

The army commander said the security agencies were keeping a watch on "terrorism from across the Line of Control (LoC)" and other outfits like Taliban and ISIS.
"As far as terrorism from across the Line of Control (LoC) is concerned, all these outfits are linked somewhere and there is cross-pollination between their cadres at some point as well. Their linkages and effect is meaningful to us.
"We think it is important to take all such inputs into our calculus when we carry out our dispositions, when we carry out our operations over here," he said.

Pointing the spotting of ISIS flags in Srinagar last year, the General Commanding officer however said that there was no pattern of operation noticed and security forces were on alert to tackle any situation.

"As far as ISIS is concerned, last year there were five instances when we saw the flags on display at different places - on four occasions in Srinagar and on one occasion in Shopian. All agencies are keeping a watch for that but as to say that there is any trend or pattern, that did not emerge because they were all in 2014.
"It did not quite get linked to one another in that sense. But the larger answer to the question is that yes as security forces we have to be alert and alive to all such threats that may emerge," Lt Gen Subrata Saha added.