Three persons shot at outside Srinagar liquor shop

Militants opened indiscriminate fire on the people waiting outside the high-security liquor shop at Boulevard on the famous Dal Lake causing injuries to three persons.

The incident occurred on Thursday evening, when there was a huge rush near the shop in the tourist hub of Kashmir. Police sources said two pistol-borne militants fired on the people waiting in the queue at a local hotel injuring three men, who were later identified as Fayaz Ahmad Khanday, Mohammad Sharief Sheikh of Srinagar and Ravi Kumar of Kathua Jammu.

“Unidentified pistol borne militants fired near a liquor shop at a local hotel in the jurisdiction of police station Ram Munshi Bagh in Srinagar this evening”, a police spokesman said.

Panic gripped the area after the firing with people running helter-skelter. Police and security forces immediately rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area to track down the ultras responsible for the incident.

This is the second time when the liquor shop has been targeted in Kashmir in the last one year. Earlier, in June 2011, a major tragedy was averted when police destroyed a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) planted outside the liquor shop.

It is also the second major incident that has rocked Srinagar for the last one month. On October 19, heavily armed militants opened indiscriminate fire at the local hotel killing two of its employees and injuring another at Lasjan-Nowgam bypass in the city outskirts.