Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, July 24: Militants today carried out a series of attacks in Srinagar city against Telecoms by hurling grenades at their showrooms and attempting to blow up cell phone towers, injuring two persons and creating fear psychosis among people associated with telecoms.
The first attack took place at Karan Nagar at around 11 am when two militants barged inside the showroom of Aircel and directed the employees and customers to move out. One of them carrying a pistol, lobbed a grenade inside the showroom which exploded damaging the showroom.
The militants fled from the scene and stopped at another showroom of Vodafone, hardly 300 metres away from the first showroom. They barged into the showroom and threatened the employees for not following the Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI) directive on shutdown of cellular operations. They asked the employees and customers to move out and later hurled a grenade inside, damaging the showroom.
Panic gripped the area and many shopkeepers shut their shops. Senior Police officers rushed to the spot to assess the situation.
Police conducted searches in the adjoining areas of Karan Nagar and laid checkpoints in searches of the militants responsible for the attack.
Police also questioned few telecom employees till late in the evening. However, no one was formally arrested.
Hours after showroom attacks, militants tried to blow up a BSNL cell phone tower at Shaheed Gunj locality, hardly few hundred meters from Karan Nagar, in which one painter was injured.
Militants threw a grenade towards the tower and it led to injuries to a painter identified as Mohammad Faiq of Bihar. The injured was rushed to SMHS hospital for treatment and his condition is stable. Large contingents of Government forces arrived at the grenade spot and launched searches to nab the attackers.
In the fourth attack, militants targeted an Airtel tower at Wazir Bagh area of the city by lobbing a grenade. The tower is installed in the house of Abdul Rahim Wani and in the attack, his Alto Car bearing registration number JK01V – 7441 was damaged.
Police have prepared sketches of the militants who attacked the showrooms of the telecoms and have launched a massive hunt against them.
So far no militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the spate of attacks in city here but police believes, LeI headed by Qayoom Najjar is responsible for the series of attacks. The LeI had already warned attacks against the cellular companies.
The fresh attacks have created panic among the people associated with telecom business. The attacks came after Hizbul Muajhideen supreme commander, Syed Salahuddin, expelled its Sopore-based commander, Abdul Qayoom Najar for carrying out attacks on telecom installations, Hurriyat members and former militants and also for violating outfit’s constitution.
Earlier, last week the telecom showrooms in restive Sopore were shut down indefinitely following threats.
It may be mentioned here that in May there was telecom shutdown for over a week in North Kashmir after majority of the towers were shutdown following militant threats and attacks. Even in Srinagar and South Kashmir the telecom operations remained affected in the first week of June for two days.
Two people associated with telecoms were killed and 4 injured in six separate attacks on the telecoms in May that led to major telecom shutdown.
However, police later provided security to the towers and assured the telecom operators security for their operations. A major crackdown was also launched against the LeI but so far security forces have not achieved any major success against them.
In the meantime, the posters of Hizbul Mujahideen appeared in Pulwama district asking beauty parlors to shut down within 24 hours.
The posters appeared in Kareemabad and its adjoining villages in which the outfit has warned beauty parlor owners to wind up their “illegal business within 24 hours or else face consequences”. The outfit has also directed boys and girls to abstain from using narcotics and liquor and dealing in its trade.
Besides, this they warned “informers” of security forces and directed to “repent” in Masjids publicly. The outfit has warned of action against those who defy its orders.
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