J&K militants target cable operators

SRINAGAR, Sept 30 (PTI, UNI) — In a bid to enforce ban on cable operators and video parlours, militants today attacked their establishments with grenades at two different places here, wounding a cable operator.
Militants first hurled a grenade on a private cable network at around 12.30 p.m. in the Solina area of uptown Srinagar, wounding its operator and damaging the instrument, official sources said.
The ultras again exploded a grenade at Court Road in the heart of the city damaging four shops, including a video parlour.
The sources said the target of the militants was the video parlour in the busy business area. However, no one was injured in this explosion.
Several pro-Pakistan militant outfits recently asked cinema owners, video parlours and cable operators to close their business as they consider it "anti-Islamic".
One person was killed and 19 others wounded when militants attacked Regal cinema in the heart of the city with grenades on the very first day of its reopening after a decade-long closure on Friday.
Meanwhile, security was further beefed up today in and around the civil secretariat, seat of the Jammu and Kashmir Government, following yesterday’s sneak attack by militants on the multi-storied building here which left eight persons wounded.
"Extra security arrangements have been taken to avoid the recurrence of such an incident", SSP, Srinagar, Mir Niyazi, told PTI.
He said the police and security forces, deployed in the close vicinity of the secretariat, were alerted and asked to maintain a tight vigil.
The Inspector-General of Police (Operation, Kashmir) Mr P.S. Gill, said yesterday the perpetrators of the attack had been identified and important clues found. An operation had been launched to trace and apprehend the militants and their mentors who were responsible for the attack, he said.
"It is a matter of time when the militants involved in the attack are behind bars," the SSP said today.
"We have got some clues and specific operations have been launched to trace and apprehend the militants," the SSP said.
The sources said some suspects were rounded up for questioning from the area which was once a highly militant-infested locality of Srinagar. Border Security Force (BSF) personnel stationed in large numbers in the sensitive locality were seen patrolling the lanes and bylanes of the area today.
Other localities falling around the secretariat, including Balgarden, Shutrashahi, Tankipora, Shaheedgunj, Guru Bazar and Karan Nagar also witnessed stepped up patrolling by paramilitary forces and the police, the sources said.
Additional policemen were deployed on the main gates of the civil secretariat and the road leading to it from Jehangir Chowk to Batmaloo was virtually sealed with further deployment of the security personnel on both sides of the road.
According to a report from Baramula, 11 militants, mostly foreigners, and a soldier were killed and another jawan injured in north Kashmir during the past 24 hours.
Official sources said troops came under heavy fire from militants at Bahak Mandi Forest in Kupwara district last night. They said troops immediately retaliated and in the night-long fierce encounter, eight militants were killed. One soldier, Jasbir Singh, also lost his life while another jawan, Ashok Kumar, was injured.
Later, troops seized three AK rifles, three magazines, 80 rounds and four grenades near the site of the encounter.
The operation was still going on when the reports last came in.
A Defence Ministry spokesman said in Srinagar that troops of the Rashtriya Rifles on specific information cordoned off the woods of Mushnar in the same district on the morning of September 28.
He said when the troops were sealing the area, they came under heavy fire from militants from different directions. The troops also retaliated, killing three militants.
He said troops marching ahead noticed another group of four militants trying to run away from the area. However, a fierce encounter took place in the morning yesterday which continued till 4 p.m.
Later, the bodies of four militants, reportedly foreigners, were recovered from the area. A huge cache of arms and ammunition was seized from the slain militants.