Massive search in about a dozen villages South Kashmir

Srinagar, Apr 19 (UNI) A massive search operation, by the security forces was going on in about a dozen villages at Balhama in Pulwama district of South Kashmir for the past three days following intelligence inputs about the presence of militants there.

Official sources said security forces cordoned off about a dozen villages at Balhama, about 15 km from here, on April 17 after receiving a tip off that some militants were hiding there.

They said all exit points were sealed and male members were directed to assemble in the open. They were later paraded before ' 'cats' (informers) and their identity cards properly checked.

Later, security forces conducted house-to-house searches but could not find anything.

A resident Ghulam Mohammad told UNI over phone from Balhama that they remained confined in the area for the past three days.'' We are now facing shortage of essential commodities,'' he said.

We were being taken to open field every morning and after being kept there for the whole day, we were allowed to leave for home in the evening, he alleged.

He said, government employees could not go to their offices and businessmen too could not open their establishments.

Ghulam Mohammad said, security forces had searched his house twice since this morning.

Another resident Abdul Rashid said nobody was being allowed to leave or enter the cordoned off villages.

This was for the first time that we remained confined to our villages for three consecutive days because of search operation, Rashid said.

He denied the presence of militants in the area and said it remained by and large peaceful even during the militancy period.

Sources said, the security forces during the searches questioned a number of persons.

People were being paraded before the ''cats'' (informers) during the operation. However, no objectionable material or arms and ammunitions were recovered so far, sources added.

The residents appealed to government and army authorities to intervene and lift the cordon in these villages.

UNI