Srinagar, Oct 13:
Security was beefed up in several areas of Srinagar – the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir – on Sunday following a grenade attack by suspected militants in a city market that left seven people injured, police said. More security personnel, along with the flying squad, were deployed in Lal Chowk, Jehangir Chowk, Hari Singh High Street, Regal Chowk, TRC Chowk, Polo View and the areas around the city centre, a police official said. He said random checking of vehicles and frisking of people was being done as part of the security drill. The deployment of more security personnel was done in the wake of a grenade attack in Hari Singh High Street market a few hundred metres from the city centre – on Saturday in which seven people were injured, the official said. He said the authorities wanted to give a sense of security to the people and the vendors who had set up stalls for the weekly flea market on Sunday. While the flea market usually remains open only on Sundays, several vendors have continued with putting their stalls along the TRC Chowk-Polo View-Lal Chowk road on daily basis for the last few weeks. State government spokesperson Rohit Kansal, in a presser on Sunday, urged the businessmen, industrialists, traders, transporters, shopkeepers, hoteliers and contractors “not to be frightened by any threats by terrorists and separatists” and go about their normal activities. Kasnal said it was well established that there have been sustained attempts from across the border both in the past and more so in the last two months to promote militancy and terrorism in the state to create a sense of fear and terror among the people and keep the place in a disturbed condition.
He said militant organisations continue to make attempts to terrorise the people to prevent traders, businessmen, transporters from doing their normal business. However, he said, the government is firm in its resolve that the attempts to disturb peace would be foiled. The Kashmir valley has been witnessing continuous shutdown since August 5 when the Centre revoked the state’s special status under Article 370 and bifurcated it into two Union Territories.
