Soldier held with grenades at Srinagar airport
Third attack on security forces in three days, LashkareTaiba claims responsibility
SRINAGAR: An army jawan was arrested with two grenades at Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar airport by an anti-hijacking squad on Monday.
A senior officer gave him the grenades to be handed over to someone in Delhi, sources quoted the soldier as saying. “Major sahib ne kaha tha (Major sir told me to do so),” the jawan said during his questioning.
An army spokesman confirmed that the soldier was ‘caught carrying grenade in a packet.’
“The matter is under investigation. The army will take action against the individual,’’ the spokesman said.
The explosives were found in the baggage as the soldier, posted near in the Line of Control in Uri, was to board a chartered Air India flight for security personnel.
SRINAGAR:One Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel was killed and five others injured on Monday after suspected militants opened fire on a CRPF convoy in Sempora area on the outskirts of the city, bordering south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
CRPF spokesman Rajesh Yadav identified the jawan as Bassapa of 97 battalion.
Two civilians have also been injured in the attack — driver of the bus in which CRPF personnel were travelling and a 10-year-old school girl. The attack took place around a kilometre away from a prominent school in the area.
Central Reserve Police Force officials said the security men travelling in the convoy, that was travelling from Jammu to Srinagar, were arriving for upcoming election duties. Bypolls in two Lok Sabha constituencies of Kashmir are scheduled for April 9 and 12.
There has been an increase in militant activity in the Kashmir valley, which has subdued the ongoing election campaigning. Officials said militants fired their guns at a CRPF convoy in Pantha Chowk near Sempora in the afternoon.
He did not specify whether or not the CRPF personnel retaliated. Immediately after the attack, government forces swung into action and started a search operation to trace the attackers. The attack comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Chenani-Nashri all-weather tunnel in the border state.
A few hours after the inauguration, a policeman was killed and 14 security personnel injured in a grenade attack by militants in Nowhatta in downtown Srinagar.
On Saturday, militants opened fire on an army convoy near a hospital on ParimporaPanthachowk bypass road in Srinagar. A solider was injured in the attack.