Srinagar, November 2
Senior Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Lone escaped an attempt on his life when suspected militants attacked his house here last night, one day after the state government downgraded security at the residence.
Mr Lone and his family members were in when an unspecified number of heavily-armed gunmen sprayed bullets at his Sanatnagar residence around 9.10 p.m.
He told reporters here that no one was injured in the 30-minute gunbattle with his security guards with the ultras escaping under the cover of darkness.
Official sources said the firing was so intense that bullets hit the bedroom and other areas in the house. The room where the security personnel were put up bore the brunt of the firing, they said.
No militant group has claimed responsibility and the motive of the attack was also not immediately known.
Officials, however, suspected the hand of the Al-Barq militant group in the wake of reports that it had recently demanded Mr Lone to had over immediately all assets of the organisation.
“I have no concrete proof as to who was behind the attack,” Mr Lone said while expressing surprise that the attack came a day after government downgraded the security cover at his residence. “It is really fishy,” Mr Lone said.
Mr Lone criticised Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah for scaling down his security instead of beefing it up despite being aware of the threats to him.
He accused intelligence agencies of India and Pakistan of engineering the attacks on politicians in the state.
“I am not among the politicians who toe the line of any agency,” he said.
JAMMU: Indian troops killed more than 21 militants, most of them foreign mercenaries, at three places in the Mandi area of Poonch today, Pakistani troops resorted to mortar shelling from a cross Nowshehra and Poonch areas to provide cover to another group of militants.
According to Brigadier P.C. Das, Brigadier, General staff 16 Corps, 20 foreign mercenaries were killed in Loren, Sujaian and Kalaband area of Mandi. He said that a big group of infiltrators had sneaked into the India territory from across Poonch sector and the troops laid an ambush. The militants opened fire which was returned.
The encounter continued for several hours. In the return fire more than 20 militants were killed. Search operations were launched for nabbing or eliminating other rebels said to have escaped into the forest belt. But rain delayed the search operation.
Defence Ministry officials said that the Pakistani troops resorted to heavy mortar shelling on the Indian posts and border villages from across Nowshehra and Poonch sectors. “There was no casualty on our side, the official said.
The Indian troops fired to foil the Pak bid to push militants into Poonch sector. In the process some Pak bunkers are stated to have been smashed.
The Defence Ministry authorities said here this evening that the elimination of 20 militants in the Mandi area of Poonch and arrest of five boys who were being recruited for arms training clearly revealed that both Islamabad and Pakistani Army were determined to encourage and assist cross-border terrorism.
They said the Pakistani Army had devised a plan to push into the Poonch sector big groups of militants as it was the shortest route to Kashmir.
They said the rate of elimination was the highest in Poonch and Rajouri because the rate of infiltration too was high in these two sectors.
Meanwhile, all four persons kidnapped by militants on Tuesday from the Chasana area of Udhampur district were released unharmed and reached home safely last night, the sources said.
