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Grenade attack in Sopore

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 6/28/2013 11:22:45 PM

CRPF man injured, live grenade recovered in Kulgam

SRINAGAR, June 28: A CRPF man was injured in a grenade explosion at Sopore today. Hizbul Mujhahideen (HM) has owned responsibility for the attack.
Reports said militants lobbed a grenade on CRPF picket at Hotel Plaza near General Bus stand. The grenade exploded with a bang leaving one CRPF jawan injured. He was identified as Kabir Chand.
A police official said that the grenade missed the intended target and exploded on the road.
Soon after the explosion, police cordoned off the area and a hunt was launched to nab the militants. However, no one was arrested during the search operation.
Meanwhile, Hizbul Mujhideen while claiming the responsibility for the attack said that the militants soon after carrying the attack successfully managed to flee from the spot.
Hizb’s operational spokesperson, Baleeg-u-Din, said on phone that the organisation’s militants carried out the attack.
Panic gripped in the district hospital Kulgam today after the forces cordoned off the hospital to nab the militant who had managed to enter there. Police also recovered a grenade from the hospital premises which they claimed was left by the militant who later managed to flee taking advantage of the chaos.
Sources and eyewitnesses said that Special Operations Group (SOG) of police, on the input about the militant having entered the hospital premises, cordoned off the hospital building and conducted search operations. After failing to trace the militant there the SOG men left.
However, after half-an-hour the SOG men along with the army came again and cordoned off the hospital for the second time, creating panic among the patients, attendants and the medical staff as well.
“The forces searched the hospital first time for about 20 minutes where as the search operation of the hospital building continued for nearly two hours during second cordon,” eyewitnesses said.
They said that the forces during the second cordon also recovered a Chinese grenade from the hospital premises.
“The cordon and the search operations of the hospital created panic among the patients and attendants. Though the patients in the OPD ran out for their lives but those admitted in IPD remained only there till the search operations were over. They were neither evacuated nor were able to come out themselves,” eyewitnesses and sources said.
They said that there were cries all around in the hospital as the search operation was on.
A top police official posted in the district wishing anonymity said that they cordoned and searched the hospital on the input about the presence of the militant there. He, however, said that the militant managed to flee in the chaos triggered due to the cordon within the hospital premises.
“We have also recovered a grenade within the hospital premises which the militant had left there to evade the arrest,” the police officer said.
He claimed that they had evacuated all the medical staff and patients and attendants from OPD but said that they could not evacuate the admitted patients. “Though we could not evacuate the patients from IPD but we had blocked the entrances of all the IPD wards to prevent the militant from entering there. Thank God, he did not succeed in that otherwise it would have been no less than a catastrophe,” the police officer said.