Jaish-e-Mohammad has claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the bomber as a local militant. (Express photo)Thursday's suicide attack by Masood Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammad marks an unprecedented escalation in its efforts to take the centrestage of militancy in the Kashmir Valley. This year alone, it has been responsible for as many as a dozen attacks in the Valley, two in Srinagar on the eve of Republic Day.
The return of the Taliban to the political table in Afghanistan — its talks with the US and Pakistan were announced Wednesday — and China's repeated stalling of efforts by India and the US to blacklist Azhar have boosted Jaish's three-year-long campaign to revive itself in Jammu and Kashmir after a protracted lull.
To that effect, Azhar even sent his two nephews to the Valley: Talha Rashid, who was killed in October 2017, and Usman Haider, who was killed a year later.
Jaish's first major strike that pushed India and Pakistan to the brink of war was the 2001 Parliament attack. In January 2016, it was behind the attack on the Pathankot airbase in which seven security personnel were killed. And the September 2016 Uri attack in which 20 soldiers were killed. New Delhi subsequently responded with a surgical strike across the LoC.
Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed the bomber was Adil Ahmad Dar of Pulwama.Car bombing is not new to Jaish. In…
