Srinagar, Oct 22 (IANS): Officials said on Tuesday that over 40 suspects were detained for questioning by the investigators in connection with the Gagangir terrorist attack in which seven people were killed and four injured.

Investigators believe that the terrorist attack carried out on Sunday with precision and promptness could not have been possible without the supporters of terror associates.

A massive CASO (Cordon & Search Operation) was started by the security forces on Monday to hunt down the terrorists responsible for the dastardly attack on unarmed, innocent civilian workers.

Army, CRPF and the police have fanned out into the mountains around the terror attack site to trace the terrorists while the sleuths of the NIA have minutely scanned the terror attack site and all adjoining areas to gather vital clues.

Security forces are minutely searching the area to track down the terrorist associates without whose support such a heinous and dastardly act of terrorism could not be carried out.

Police and intelligence agencies believe that two masked foreign terrorists carried out the attack, but the same could not have been done without a clear idea and study of the layout around the private company’s camp where the workers were living.

Officials said the attack was carried out by the terrorists with a complete understanding of the attack site and after working out the entry and exit routes for the terrorists with the help of some local associates.

Besides being one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the Valley in the last many years, the area where the attack took place has widely been believed to be free of any terrorist footprint.

The attack was owned by the ‘TRF’ (The Resistance Front) which is an offshoot of the terror outfit, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). A spokesman of the TRF based in Pakistan owned responsibility for the attack.

Six non-local workers and a local doctor were killed and four others were injured in this attack.

The private company APCO for which the workers were on the job, has been constructing the Gagangir-Sonamarg tunnel from Z-Morh to make Srinagar-Sonamarg an all-weather road.

Once thrown open for traffic, Sonamarg will become an all-weather tourist destination thereby helping the local economy and generating employment for the youth.

The attack has been widely condemned by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah; Union Minister for Roads and Highways Nitin Gadkari; J&K L-G; Chief Minister Omar Abdullah; former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and Ghulam Nabi Azad among many others.