THE MUJAHIDAAT or women terrorists have reached India's doorstep. Army chief General Deepak Kapoor disclosed on Tuesday that women were being trained on the other side of the Line of Control to unleash terror in Jammu and Kashmir. He said, "We have infbrma- tion that women terrorists are waiting to infiltrate into J&K." The army chief was responding to a question on the possibility of women handlers taking part in the Pulwama encounter that ended on Monday The female terrorist will be a new phenomenon in Kashmir and it could compel the army to fine-tune its count- er-terrorism strategy There are several reasons why terror groups use women. A senior army oncer, who did not wish to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said, "Women arouse less suspicion as they are stereotyped as non-violent. Searching and questioning them is also quite complex." So far, women have only played minor roles such as pro- viding information and shel- ter to terrorists in J&K. The officer said attacks exe- cuted by women terrorists would also bring greater pub- licity Army sources said the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba was raising a new cadre of women fighters. The first indication of women joining terror ranks came around two years back with the arrest of a 20-year-old Kashmiri woman, Khalida Akhtar, who revealed that the Lashkar was recruiting females to set up honey-traps for soldiers. Several terror groups across the world have used women. Palestinian militant groups have in the past sent female bombers to attack Israel. Young Chechen 'black widows had struck fear in the hearts of Russians by carrying out suicide attacks to avenge the death of their husbands. A third of the members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were women at one stage. Women terrorists are known to strap explosives on their abdomens to look like pregnant women to hoodwink security personnel. rahul.singh@hindustantimes.com