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| TOURISTS ATTACKED, AGAIN | | SRINAGAR SERIAL BLASTS KILL 8, INJURE 40 | | SRINAGAR JULY 11: After a brief lull, unidentified assailants lobbed as many as five grenades on Tuesday in Srinagar City–one after another in a series, which killed at least eight persons including six tourists belonging to states of West Bengal and Hyderabad, while wounding nearly 40 others.
So far no militant organization has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
It was 1150 hours when unidentified hands hurled a grenade towards a mini-bus carrying tourists at Dalgate area of Srinagar, and four tourists were killed in this blast.
Top Police officials were busy inspecting the blast site at Dalgate but four more blasts, minutes after the first one, rocked Regal Chowk, Clock Tower (Gantaghar), Abi Guzar and Tourists Reception Centre areas of City. In all five grenade blasts took place which consumed eight innocent lives and wounded about 40 persons.
Today's attacks are also seen as a jolt to recent Police claims of busting several modules of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Al-Badr and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant outfits. However, Police says that the se serial blasts should not be seen in the context of any security lapse.
Inspector General of Kashmir Range S M Sahay said that militants have adopted a new strategy by "motivating young people to throw grenades and this (strategy) comes handy for them, as it saves their original manpower and little resources are spent."
All injured were immediately removed to different hospitals in Srinagar where condition of some is stated to be critical.
Strange development took place when people at TRC Tata Sumo stand caught hold of a man who they said threw a grenade there. People later handed over the man to Police. Eyewitnesses maintained that the nabbed grenade thrower was a non-Kashmiri but Police identified him as a Kashmiri youth bearing allegiance to LeT militant outfit.
JOLT TO TOURISM INDUSTRY
The fresh attack is the sixth one directly aimed at targeting tourists, and given the impact of the damage caused by attacks these could prove a major jolt to tourism industry of Kashmir Valley.
In the last week of May month there were two deadly attacks on tourists. On the occasion of second roundtable conference on Kashmir headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on May 25, four tourists belonging to Gujarat state were killed in a grenade attack in Zakura area, while as on May 31 one tourist from West Bengal was killed and many were injured in a grenade blast at Dalgate area.
Reacting to fresh attacks on tourists the Tourism officials said that these attacks have the potential to affect tourism season this year.
Secretary J&K Tourism department Naeem Akhtar told KIP that "these attacks are a big challenge for us." "Well, these attacks are a jolt to tourism sector, if not a major setback," he said.
However, the senior vice president of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce Nazir Ahmad Dar demanded an impartial probe into the attacks on tourists. "Even in 1990s when militancy was at its peak tourists were not targeted. We're puzzled over the fact who could be these perpetrators?" he said.
ATTACK WIDELY CONDEMNED
Cutting across political ideologies, politiciansfrom both mainstream and separatist camps have condemned today's serial blasts.
Jammu and Kashmir Governor, S K Sinha, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, opposition National Conference president Omar Abdullah, and CPI (M) state secretary Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami have strongly deplored the incidents that took place today.
Both factions of Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani respectively have condemned the grenade attacks on tourists.
Pertinent to mention here that militant outfits operating in the restive region like Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba, have been denying their involvement in any attacks targeting either tourists or civilians. |
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