3 militants held in Budgam, grenade hurled in City

Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 19: Police today claimed to have arrested three militants from Budgam district and a grenade was lobbed on security forces in Parimpora area of summer capital here while normal life in Kashmir was affected today due to a strike call called by separatists and subsequent restrictions imposed by authorities.
In two tweets posted this evening on micro-bloggging website Twitter, police said that three militants were arrested by cops in Budgam district along with one SLR rifle, one pistol and grenades. Describing it a “major success”, the police said that further investigation into the matter is on. The police said that all three arrested militants belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit. In Parimpora area here, unidentified persons hurled a grenade towards security forces during stone-pelting clashes today late afternoon.

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A police official said that the grenade was hurled from stone-pelting mob near Foot Bridge, Parimpora, which exploded with a big bang but there were no injuries to security forces in the blast. The Parimpora area is tense since yesterday over the killing of local militant Mugees Aziz Mir in Zakoora shootout here. In the meantime, majority of shops and commercial establishments were closed across Srinagar since today morning due to strike called by the separatists.  The educational institutes, Government offices and banks were closed on the account of Sunday holiday.
Authorities imposed restrictions in five police station areas of downtown city including Nowhatta, Maharaj Gunj, Safakadal, Rainawari and Khanyar. The separatist trio including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Yasin Malik had last night called for a shutdown in Valley today against the security forces’ cordon and search operations and killing of six Lashkar-e-Toiba militants in Hajin area of Bandipora district. Due to strike call, the private and public transport was partially affected in city.
The reports of shutdown were also received from other districts of the Valley. In Hajin area, people staged protests against the killing of six militants yesterday and offered their funeral-in-absentia.  All the slain militants were buried by police in Baramulla district.