Journalism of Courage
At a time when the Omar Abdullah government is talking of withdrawing the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from parts of Jammu and Kashmir,a series of attacks broke the calm in the Valley today.
While there were two grenade attacks on police and paramilitary forces in Srinagar,a policeman was shot in Anantnag. A grenade was also lobbed at policemen in Shopian but failed to explode. Three CRPF men and a policeman were wounded in the attacks.
National Conference spokesperson and Omars uncle Mustafa Kamal accused the Army of carrying out the attacks to stall revocation of AFSPA.
Corps Commander of the Armys 15 Corps,Lt General S A Hasnain,said,This statement does not even deserve one bit of the Armys comment. It is absolutely preposterous.
Late on Tuesday night,Kamal vehemently denied his statement,PTI reported.
The first explosion was at Lal Chowk in Srinagar at 12.25 pm the first such attack in the city since August when unidentified men lobbed a hand grenade towards CRPF personnel at the Akhara building,injuring three.
Barely 10 minutes later,a grenade was thrown at a CRPF bunker in Batamaloo. Three hours later,unidentified gunmen shot at a policeman from point blank range in Anantnag. A new recruit,Anzar Mugloo,was hit in the abdomen.
