The Hindu : Front Page : Militants attack Government complex

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 07, 2005

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Militants attack Government complex

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR, APRIL 6. A day before the bus to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir is to be flagged off, militants today attacked the Tourist Reception Centre here accommodating 24 passengers.

Two members of the fidayeen (suicide) squad were killed in the ensuing gub battle and seven persons, including a policeman, were injured. Forty-five persons, including the passengers, were evacuated to safety.

Even as the Jammu and Kashmir Government was giving the final touches to mark the gala event tomorrow, two armed militants sneaked into the highly-guarded complex in the heart of Srinagar. The venue is hardly a few metres from the Sher-e-Kashmir Stadium where the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, is to flag off the bus.

The stadium had been sealed off for the last few days. Eyewitnesses told The Hindu that around 3.55 p.m. a deafening sound rocked the area and soon after there was heavy firing. "I was sitting in [my] office and I heard a cracking sound. It was followed by gunshots and the building in which my office is located caught fire," said Muneebul Hassan Malik, Assistant Director, Tourism.

The militants, who had hurled grenades and entered the building, soon took position and began firing from all directions. The police, the Central Reserve Police Force and the Border Security Force who were guarding the complex, cordoned off the area.

The Director-General of Police, Gopal Sharma, said "the militants set it [the building] on fire in order to create chaos." The entire building, housing a number of departments including Tourism, Wildlife, Fisheries, State Road Transport Corporation, J&K Tourism Development Corporation, Northern Railways, Post Office, SBI, JK Bank and Indian Airlines, soon caught fire. The building, a wooden structure constructed in the 60s, went up in flames and thick black smoke covered the sky.

Many government employees were trapped inside. One woman, while rushing out, received bullet injuries and was taken to hospital. Six others were also wounded, Mr. Sharma said.

Amid the gunfire and explosions, two shocked employees of Indian Airlines were seen consoling each other. "We jumped out of the office window after breaking open the iron grill," Latif Ahmad, told this reporter soon after he came out. "We have no news of another colleague who is still in there and could not jump."

Theatre director M.K. Raina, who is in town to direct tomorrow's cultural programme, was also in the building. "I was sitting in Beg Sahib's [M.S. Beg, Director General, Tourism] office when bullets started coming through but I took shelter in the bathroom," he told The Hindu .

Mr. Beg was not in the office. The blaze gave the fire servicemen, who did a great job to save adjacent buildings, a tough time. Many of them had a narrow escape as the huge building was crumbling. "They have done an excellent job," said a senior officer.

Claim responsibility

The four militant organisations, Al-Nasireen, Save Kashmir Movement, Al-Arifeen and Farzandan-e-Millat, have owned responsibility for the attack. A spokesman for the outfits told a news agency that their members were behind it.

The attack, in the wake of repeated threats by these outfits against the bus service, came at a time when Srinagar was literally under a security cordon.

The State Government has not changed any of the festivities connected with the programme.

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