Grenade attack on security forces in Srinagar's Lal Chowk; 2 CRPF, 2 civilians hurt

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New Delhi: Terrorists carried out a grenade attack in Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar on Sunday (February 1), leaving two CRPF personnel and two civilians injured. According to primary reports coming in, the terrorists lobbed the grenade at security forces deployed at Partap Park located in the Lal Chowk of Srinagar today. 

Following the attack, the security forces cordoned off the area and launched an investigation into the incident. 

In another development, the Jammu and Kashmir police detained local Jaish-e-Mohammad militant commander Zahid Sheikh's brother Suhaib from Karimabad area of Pulwama in north Kashmir. According to police, Suhaib is an overground worker. Truck driver Samir Ahmed Dar, who was arrested by the J&K Police from Nagrota on Friday, had named his as receiver of the foreign terrorist who arranged logistics. He is being taken to Jammu for interrogation. 

On January 31, the police killed at least three Jaish militants and arrested their three associates, including Samir Ahmed Dar, during an encounter in Nagrota. The police had also intercepted a Srinagar-bound truck at Ban Toll Plaza in Nagrota area.

The police said that the ) terrorists were carrying 'armoured piercing steel core ammunition' which can go through Level 3 protection bulletproof vehicles that police and other security forces use. The ammunition was in large quantity and could have posed a grave threat. The truck-borne terrorists carried with them a powerful ready-to-use IED from across the border to carry out attack against the security forces on the highway, they said. 

They had "dumped it at a convenient location" near a hoarding on the highway to be used by a third person of their module, who is currently in Jammu, they said.

Based on the disclosure during questioning of the three OWGs, a police team and bomb disposal squad swung into action and defused the IED fitted with RDX, grenades and other material and placed under a hoarding at Nagrota on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, the officials said.

Efforts are on track down the person of the JeM module in Jammu who was to plant IED to target security forces, they said.

The JeM terrorists also carried with them a deadly US-made sniper rifle, six rifles, five pistols, 11 hand grenades, explosives and high-end satellite communication phones and GPS. DGP said that JeM terrorists only carried such weapons, that too by its top commanders.

They said M4 sniper rifle was used by militants in Kashmir in 2018 in five incidents fatally targeting police personnel.

On January 31, Police and security forces detained five more truck operators from Rhembal and Udhampur and two of them had called Sameer Dar on telephone, but involvement of all of them was being investigated, the officials said.

Police said the terrorist group is suspected to have infiltrated from along the International Border (IB) in Dayalachak area in Hiranagar sector of Kathua district and were picked by truckers around 2 am on Friday to carry out an attack. The group was on its way to Srinagar when the police team intercepted it at the plaza around 5 am on Friday, they said.

(With PTI inputs)