'Srinagar attackers talked to bosses in Pak'

The Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists, who were killed by security forces during the siege at Lal Chawk in Srinagar, were in constant touch with their handlers in Pakistan when they were holed up inside a hotel there.

According to highly-placed sources in the Union home ministry, nearly 700 terrorists, half of them foreign mercenaries, are active in Jammu and Kashmir.

They said some more attacks were expected to take place as the holed up militants at the hotel in Lal Chowk area had communicated the same to their handlers in Pakistan, the sources said.

According to the official data available with the home ministry, 413 infiltration attempts were made from across the border during which 93 terrorists were killed while 110 managed to sneak in.

Out of the 110 who had infiltrated, 70 per cent were foreign militants while the remaining locals.

The attacks in Srinagar was a result of shifting of focus of the police forces towards Jammu, which is the winter capital of the state, a senior official of the home ministry said.