SRINAGAR, India India's Border Security Force (BSF) has joined local police to prevent acid attacks against unveiled Muslim women in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials said Sunday. Police on Wednesday reported an acid attack against two unveiled Kashmiri women. A previously-unknown militant group, Lashkar-e-Jabbar, took responsibility for the attack, saying it was the beginning of a drive to impose an Islamic dress code for Kashmiri women, AFP reported. "I have asked my boys to apprehend elements spraying acid on women," said R.P. Singh, a senior BSF official. "Police have launched a full-fledged drive to prevent the attacks and apprehend the people involved." Singh said BSF patrols were being asked to lookout for people carrying acid with them. "Our increased patrolling after the attack has also worked," he added. Wednesday's attack, which sparked fear among women in Kashmir, has been condemned by major militant groups, including Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. These rebel groups say these attacks could not be carried by militants. However, Singh, who heads BSF's intelligence wing in Kashmir, said Lashkar-e-Jabbar could be a splinter group of any of the various radical militant groups operating in Kashmir. "The militant groups were openly advocating adherence to strict Islamic dress code," Singh said. "But now that they have seen people resisting the use of force they are backing out." "Islamic dress code is on our agenda, but not our priority," said Abu Osama, spokesman of Lashkar-e-Toiba. "At present, our objective is to secede Kashmir from India, and nothing else." Osama said his group would never use force against women. A senior police officer Ashok Bhan also said he was confident the attacks were the handiwork of militants. Bhan said security around schools and colleges for women has been beefed-up to prevent a recurrence of such attacks. "We have deployed police around women institutions," he said, and warned of strict action against those indulging in acid sparying. Police and paramilitary forces have so far failed in apprehending the people involved in Wednesday's attack. "We are on the job," Bhan said. Muslim militants in Kashmir have banned beauty parlors, liquor shops and cinema halls in the territory since an armed militancy brokeout in 1989 which has claimed at least 35,000 lives.