Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, May 30: Security forces have launched a hunt to trace out the militants who carried out an attack in the heart of Srinagar city by firing from automatic weapons on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) party in which 7 personnel were injured.
CRPF spokesman, Sudhir Kumar, told the Excelsior that the attack took place early in the morning when two mortar cycle born militants opened fire indiscriminately at a CRPF vehicle carrying jawans of the 82nd Battalion in Khanyar area of the old city. The vehicle was leaving their headquarters at Shiraz Cinema for law and order duty with the Rainawari police.
Kumar said that injured were removed to SKIMS Hospital at Soura where their condition is stated to be out of danger.
The militants managed to escape after carrying out the attack. The Rainawari area was sealed off soon after the attack and senior police and paramilitary CRPF officers rushed to the spot to assess the situation.
SSP Srinagar, Aashiq Bukhari, said here that at least seven security force personnel were injured in the militant attack at Victory Crossing near Khanyar. He said that while one soldier received bullet injuries in the chest, six others received injuries on their limbs.
Security force sources said that the driver of the motorcycle was wearing a helmet while the pillion rider had covered his face with a mask when they opened fire on the CRPF men with an automatic assault rifle.
A spokesman of unknown militant group Islamic Front (IF) owned responsibility for the attack. They have said that 5 CRPF men were injured in the attack.
Security agencies suspected that the IF might be a shadow outfit of either Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). But so far the investigations carried out by them have not established any clue about this outfit and its links to LeT.
IGP Kashmir S M Sahai, while speaking on today’s attack told reporters here that this could be a handiwork of militant group that has come from outside Srinagar. “We have to be alert all the time”, he added.
However, sources said that their presence inside Srinagar can’t be ruled out. They said that LeT is operating in small modules that are faceless. “The module that has carried out the attack can be from inside Sriangar city but there is no such module that has come under the security forces radar”, they added.
This is the first major strike by militants in Srinagar this year in which assault rifle was used for carrying out an attack by militants. It comes at a time when IGP Kashmir said hardly two weeks ago that they will not allow the militants to carry out activities in Srinagar.
Last time assault rifles were used when Minister for Rural Development and Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Muhammad Sagar, escaped assassination bid on his life when his escort was attacked by militants outside his ancestral home in sensitive down town area in December last year.
Meanwhile, normal life was affected today in Kashmir valley due to a shutdown called by hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on the third death anniversary of two Shopian women.
The shutdown call by the hardline Hurriyat faction was marked by thin traffic on roads in the city as most of the shops and business establishments remained closed in valley.
Majority of the schools across the Kashmir valley also remained shut and the commercial nerve centre of Lal Chowk and its adjoining markets wore a deserted look.
The shutdown call evoked a mixed response in the Civil Lines of the city where many shops remained open and private cars and passenger cabs plied on the roads.
Geelani had earlier called for a strike on May 29, but postponed it for a day after members of the Kashmiri Pandit community called on the separatist leader asking him to reconsider the shutdown call as it coincided with the Kheer Bhawani festival yesterday.
Geelani called for the shutdown on the third anniversary of the two Shopian women, Aasiya and Neelofar who died in mysterious circumstances three years ago. The local residents had alleged that the two women were raped and murdered by unknown men suspected to be from security agencies. However, CBI probe conducted concluded that the death had taken place due to drowning and ruled out both the rape and murder of two women.
The death of two women led to a month-long agitation, in 2009 across Kashmir.
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