Car bomb kills 9 at doorstep of Srinagar Army base

The pro-Pakistan Jamait-ul-Mujahideen claimed responsibility for theattack saying that the militants who had blown up the car had returned to their hideout.

The 15 Corps spokesman Maj. Bharat Shahane, however, said that fourcivilians and a jawan besides the suicide bomber, who was driving the car,got killed while five jawans and five civilians were injured, four seriously.

The police, however, aren’t too sure about the militant’s death. “I did not find any evidence of a suicide-bomber. I feel the militant had parked the explosive-laden car and then exploded it,” said Deputy Inspector General of Police, Kashmir range, K Rajindera.

Highly placed sources in the Military Intelligence directorate said that after the explosion, the Army has been asked to exercise restraint and not to undertake any combat or cordon-and-search operations in the state, especially in and around Srinagar.

“The attacks are meant to incite the Army but on government orders, we are not showing any knee jerk reaction,” official sources said.

According to the police, at 2.45 pm, a Maruti car (Dl4D-5889) pulled up near the outer security post on the road leading to the main entranceof the Corps headquarters and exploded. “I could only seeclouds of dust after the bang. We lay on the ground. The next thing I could see was people running and a missing roof,” said a police constable, who was just a hundred yards away.

A Tata Sumo (JK01 3355) which was comming from Jammu was also hit by splinters killing the three in the front seat. “The three persons sitting in the rear said they were students who were on their way home forEid,” a police officer said.

Soon after the blast, there was a massive fire in the Batwara market just opposite the 15 Corps main entrance. Though the locals alleged that Armymen set the shops on fire, the Army spokesman denied it strongly. “The shop in the corner caught fire becuase of the explosion,” Maj. Shahane said. “Wepressed our fire tenders into service immediately but half of the building was damaged.”

Hundreds of people got stranded in buses becuase the Army did notallow them to leave the cordoned-off area while more than three thousandpeople waited in Sonwar to be allowed to return home. However,the Army did not ease the restriction till late this evening.

Sources said that the Army was expecting Fernandes to visitthe spot. “The area was sealed as a precautionary measure. There areinstances when the militants would detonate another bomb after some time,”Maj. Shahane said.