Security on alert, looking for militants who sneak into Srinagar

Srinagar, July 11 (UNI) Security forces and state police personnel were on their toes today, looking for militants who have reportedly sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir to carry out grenade attacks.

All vehicles entering the civil lines were being thoroughly checked and passengers frisked properly before being allowed to enter the area.

We have orders from the top to check all vehicles, a security force official said while searching the vehicle of a businessman near Tourist Reception Centre (TRC).

It was however a new experience for the tourists, travelling in a Haryana vehicle at TRC. All those travelling in the vehicle had to come down and prove their identity to a CRPF jawan that they were tourists.

One feels humiliated, a tourist from Haryana Rakesh Kumar Sharma said adding this is the second time their vehicle has been checked and they were physically frisked by the security forces in the city in less then half an hour.

Similar checks were conducted on the Boulvard road, on the bank of Dal Lake.

A UNI correspondent who visited a number of areas in the city, including tourist hub Dal Lake, saw security forces searching all vehicles and the identity of those travelling in them properly verified.

Traffic movement was disrupted on the Moulana Azad road near here after CRPF and police personnel started searching all vehicles coming from Dalgate and TRC. Those travelling in three wheelers and two wheelers were properly frisked and their identity cards checked before being allowed to move.

Security forces also conducted random search operations in the city, including Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of the summer capital.

Official sources said that intelligence inputs received from different agencies said that a group of militants had sneaked into the city for carrying out grenade attacks.

Police recently claimed to have busted Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) module when they arrested six youths at Sopore who were planning to carry out grenade attacks in Srinagar.

UNI