Soon after the IED was detected the shopkeepers started protesting against the liquor shops which they said are posing constant danger to the life and property in the area.
A major tragedy was averted in the tourist hub of Srinagar when police destroyed a powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) outside one of the liquor shops at a government run hotel on the banks of Dal Lake at Boulevard road on Thursday.
Sensing trouble, the authorities sealed all the three liquor shops to keep the militants out of the tourist hub to ensure incident free and peaceful tourist season in the Kashmir valley.
Police said the IED was kept in a tin container when it was detected before being destroyed. “Today at about 10 am, an IED was detected in a tin container near hotel Heemal, Boulevard Road, Srinagar, which has been destroyed by bomb disposal squad of Police Control Room, Srinagar without causing any loss of life”, a police spokesperson said.
Soon after the IED was detected the shopkeepers started protesting against the liquor shops which they said are posing constant danger to the life and property in the area. Shopkeepers said these shops had become nuisance and needs to be shut for public good.
“These liquor shops had become both nuisance and threat to the locals here. Had the five kilogram IED went off, everything would have been destroyed? If government is working for peace they should remove these nuisance so that people could heave a sigh of relief”, said a shopkeeper.
Three liquor shops had always been on the radar of militants and the moral police. Some years ago moral police staged a dharna along with the locals calling for the closure of the liquor shops.
“We had a meeting with police and tourism officials which ordered the closure of the shops. We are satisfied with the action they have taken by closing these shops”, said a shopkeeper.
The incident came at a time when when tourism sector is again booming with arrivals picking up by the hour.
Official figures revealed that last year the tourists’ arrivals were 7.36 lakhs excluding 4.5 lakh Amarnath pilgrims. The figures however were contested by the tour operators who said the 2010 agitation killed whole tourism season and arrivals dropped considerably after June.
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