Jammu and Kashmir Governor Girish Chandra Saxena said on Tuesday that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba was behind the recent killing of 24 Pandits in Nadimarg village.

"Local militants owing allegiance to the Hizbul Mujahideen and some other groups also participated in this dastardly act," he told rediff.com

He confirmed that the villagers had told the deputy commissioner of police about the presence of terrorists in the region.

"This information had been passed on to the superintendent of police, who in turn asked the station house officer of Zenapora to alert the police picket posted in Nadimarg. An inquiry is now being conducted into the security lapses and action would be taken against those found guilty," he said.

He said terrorist incidents had increased in the past few weeks.

"In 2001, terrorist violence was at its peak. From January 2002 till March this year, it was on a decline, but suddenly it went up and the state witnessed three major incidents in couple of weeks. The meeting called by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani was essentially to take stock of the situation and how to meet this challenge," he said.

"We are not only looking into the response of the local police, but also other counter-insurgency outfits. Whenever the local police gets information on a terrorist group present in a particular area, it should pass it on to the nearest Rashtriya Rifles post. The purpose is to ensure that everyone is alert. We want to protect the minorities as well as the VIPs who are being targeted by the terrorists groups," he added.

Asked if the Special Operations Group had been disbanded, he said, "The officers and jawans who were working in the SOG have been re-assimilated into the local police. Counter-insurgency is the job of the local police. SOG had a different command structure."

Saxena said seventy-five per cent of the terrorists killed in the state were foreigners.