National Conference hurls a grenade of accusations on forces

The suspected terror attacks particularly the twin grenade blasts in Srinagar city centre on Tuesday are snowballing into a political row with ruling National Conference (NC) pointing fingers of suspicion at the security forces operating in the valley.

“It is not just suspicion, but a strong possibility that those very people who have said there is absolutely no question of withdrawing Armed Forces Special Protection Act (AFSPA) [may be involved in the blast]. And despite their claims that there are a few dozen militants, you need whole Indian army to deal with them. They are the ones who would like the situation to continue [sic]”, said Mustafa Kamal, additional general secretary and the spokesperson of the NC.

“There are not hundreds of crores of rupees involved but tens of thousands of crores involved in this business. You know Siachin affair, for promotion they shot them (dead); you know of aluminum coffins of Kargil etc. There are instances of our police force also involving themselves in target killings for promotions. This is perhaps the only reason they have done it [grenade attacks]”.

On Friday chief Omar Abdullah had announced the controversial AFSPA will be withdrawn from certain areas of the state. This has met with stiff resistance from security forces in the state.

“This incident is not new but coming as it is after a long time has raised eyebrows about the timing. I personally feel there is a possibility these two incidents have been carried out by vested interests who want continuation of AFSPA”, Kamal, who is also the uncle of Omar and brother of Farooq, said.

Lt Col JS Brar, defence ministry spokesman at Srinagar, said the statement of Kamal is not worth a comment. “It is not worthy a comment”, he said. Undeterred Kamal, however, said such attacks would not deter the government from lifting the AFSPA.Earlier in the day, militants carried out four attacks targeting security personnel in as many hours in the Kashmir Valley, injuring three CRPF jawans and a policeman.

Unidentified militants lobbed grenades on the security forces pickets in quick succession at two different places within two kilometre range in Maisuma-Lal Chowk and Batamaloo area of city center leaving three CRPF men injured.

The first attack came at 12.20 pm when ultras surfaced near Akhara building housing CRPF camp of 132 battalion and lobbed a hand grenade at Kaman sentry post. Generally the whole area around Akahara building remains very busy which goes to the advantage of ultras who can flee melting in the crowd.

Fifteen minutes later militants surfaced at Batamaloo and lobbed another grenade at a security force post, which however did not cause any damage. Panic gripped the area and people ran helter skelter for safety. The incident occurred when the area was bustling with activities since Batamaloo houses the biggest inter-district bus stand of the valley.

Besides this, two more incidents rocked south Kashmir in which one police constable was injured. Police said unidentified militant fired upon a police constable Anzar Ahmad Mogal at General Bus Stand, Anantnag resulting in his injuries. Police said another grenade was lobbed at the police party at Zainpora in Shopian district. However, it did not explode.