The militant strike on the CRPF is the first suicide attack in Kashmir in three years. On January 5, 2010, a local and a foreign militant of the Lashkar-e-Taiba had lobbed grenades and opened fire on a CRPF picket outside Palladium Cinema in Srinagar's Lal Chowk before taking shelter inside a hotel nearby.

Both the militants were killed after a 22-hour gunbattle, which also claimed the lives of a police officer and a civilian. In October 2007, militants had mounted an attack in Dal Lake area. Two militants had died.