The Hindu : Front Page : Militants attack Congress office in Srinagar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 24, 2004

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Front Page

Militants attack Congress office in Srinagar

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR, APRIL 23. With just two days left for polling for the Srinagar constituency, militants today attacked the office of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) and a campaign vehicle of the National Conference. Top-level officers of the Special Service Bureau (SSB) battalion were among the 20 persons injured in the attack.

The militants lobbed a grenade towards the PCC office at around 1 p.m. It exploded near a bunker of the SSB personnel. As the senior officers and a battery of media persons rushed to the spot, the militants hurled two more grenades.

N.S. Bhandari, Commandant, R.S. Negi, Deputy Commandant, Rajindra Kumar, Assistant Commandant, C.C. Pathak, Deputy SP, (all belonging to the SSB) and two jawans of the SSB and the Border Security Force were injured and shifted to hospital. The condition of Mr. Pathak was said to be critical.

"Even as we were taking stock of the situation a second grenade exploded," the Assistant Commandant, Kumar, told The Hindu . Two photo journalists, Farooq Javed (Hindustan Times) and Fayaz Ahmed (Asia News International), were also injured. As the security forces opened fire, the militants ran away.

Soon after the attack, the area was cordoned off by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the BSF and the Jammu and Kashmir Police. Fearing that some fidayeen had sneaked into the building the forces evacuated some civilians, including students, from the neighbouring College of Education. However, the operation was called off after three hours.

A handful of Congress workers managed to escape soon after the first grenade was thrown towards the office.

Some people from Maisuma area assembled near the site of operation and raised pro-freedom slogans but were chased away by the people. Shopkeepers too downed their shutters in panic.

Later, the militants hurled a grenade towards a vehicle campaigning for the National Conference in Rambagh locality. Seven persons, including a policeman, were injured. This was the second attack on the NC activists in less than 24 hours. Militants had attacked an NC vehicle yesterday, injuring five persons.

The Inspector-General of Police, K. Rajindra Kumar, said that such incidents "are expected as militants are frustrated with the response of people in taking part in a democratic exercise. But adequate security arrangements are in place to foil their attempts and we will ensure that those coming to polling booths are safe."

The Al-Mansureen and the Kashmir Freedom Forum owned responsibility for the blast. They said that the attacks would continue.

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