At Valley’s Ground Zero, more attacks

Hizbullah, a lesser known pro-Pak militant outfit, claimed responsibility for the attacks, they were carried out by its Al-madina regiment.

The first blast took place at 3-50 p.m., at a busy city junction a few dozen metres from the Civil Secretariat and the J-K Police chief’s office. It left one dead and 12 injured, four of them critically.

The police’s preliminary investigations say a middle-aged man was carrying an improvised explosive device in his scooter which exploded as soon as he reached the four-way junction. He was blown up with the blast.

A passenger minibus was also caught in the blast, as were some passersby. ‘‘The blast was deafening. I saw the scooter and the man both going up in the air,’’ said Nisar Ahmad, a police constable who was standing a dozen metres away. ‘‘I closed my eyes and lay flat on the ground and thought I would surely die. I couldn’t believe I was alive.’’

Although the police is yet to confirm whether the man was a suicide bomber or just a courier, they do believe that the intended target was the Civil Secretariat, the hub of the entire State Government machinery. Dr Zahoor Ahmad, attending to the injured at SMHS hospital, said that four had serious head injuries and were critical. An 11-year old school girl too was hit. This blast was followed by a series of others at 6.25 pm. This time, militants fired five rifle grenades at an army unit at the nearby Tattoo ground, rocking the whole neighbourhood. Although the security forces have cordoned off the area, no damage to life was reported.

Next, at 7.45 pm, militants fired from close range at a BSF personnel on guard duty at Kakasarai. He suffered severe injuries. Within 15 minutes, militants lobbed a greande towards a BSF post at Qamarwari chowk, in which a BSF man and two civilians were injured.