Abu Dujana — A++ militant who planned attack on CRPF convoy

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 29

The attacks carried out on security forces in the Kashmir valley in recent months have one common link: Abu Dujana, a young ‘commander’ of the Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Abu Dujana, alias Hafiz, is believed to be in his early-twenties. He has been categorised in police records as an A-plus-plus militant — highly active and a marked man for security agencies.

Probes have linked Abu Dujana to the ambush of a BSF convoy in Udhampur in August last year, ambush of a CRPF convoy outside Srinagar and subsequent three-day encounter at a multi-storey building housing the Entrepreneur Development Institute in February and killing of two policemen in Anantnag this month.

Such attacks — ambushes of convoys travelling on the strategic highway — have become Abu Dujana’s method, making security forces work on a strategy to secure the 300-km highway connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country.

The most audacious strike by Abu Dujana took place last week when two militants ambushed a convoy of CRPF vehicles and killed eight personnel in Pampore, a few kilometres outside Srinagar.

A senior police official said Abu Dujana was involved in minutely planning the attack. “He masterminded the attack. He was the one who planned it and was instrumental in providing logistics for the attack,” he said.

In the four major attacks which Abu Dujana had planned in recent months, 17 security personnel were killed, including two Army officers of the Parachute Regiment’s special forces battalion, and 48 injured.

According to police records, Abu Dujana had infiltrated into the Kashmir valley four years ago and was sent to south Kashmir. He had operated under the command of Abu Qasim, a ‘commander’ of the Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Police sources said after Abu Qasim’s death in October last year, Abu Dujana was made the ‘commander’ of Lashkar-e-Toiba militants in south Kashmir, comprising four districts. He was now leading at least 20 militants.

The sources said Abu Dujana, believed to be a Kashmiri from the Gilgit-Baltistan area, was operating from south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. He had survived at least three close encounters with security forces in the last three months.

He was reportedly in ‘direct and regular’ contact with Sajid and Waleed, Lashkar-e-Toiba ‘commanders’ based across the Line of Control.

Police officials described Abu Dujana as a secretive militant trying hard to protect his identity. “He is very careful regarding movement in public. He keeps a very low profile and ensures that only a few know him,” the police official said.