AFTER 16 YEARS, YATRA HIT AGAIN
Terrorists on Monday night killed seven Amarnath pilgrims, including six women, and injured 19 others as they struck at a bus in Kashmir’s Anantnag district, in the worst attack on the annual pilgrimage since the year 2001.
Five of those killed were from Gujarat and two from Maharashtra.
The bus bearing the registration number GJ09Z 9976 was attacked around 8.20 pm near Khanabal when it was on its way from Srinagar to Jammu, police said.
A security official said the victims had performed the yatra two days ago and had subsequently moved to Srinagar.
Police said the bus was not a part of the yatra convoy which is being provided elaborate security. The terrorists first attacked a bullet-proof bunker of the police at Botengoo, police said, adding it was retaliated. Thereafter the terrorists fired on a police picket near Khannabal, the police added.
When the police retaliated, the militants fled, firing indiscriminately in which the bus carrying the yatris got caught.
The police and top government sources said the bus driver had violated rules for the pilgrimage, which state that no yatra vehicle should be on the highway after 7 pm as the security cover is withdrawn after that. However, it was raining bullets but the remarkable courage and presence of mind shown by the same driver Salim Sheikh from Gujarat helped save many lives in the attack.
The last time the Amarnath yatra was targeted was in 2001 when terrorists had struck in the Sheshnag area close to the holy cave of Amarnath, killing 13 people.
Prior to that,
terrorists had attacked Amarnath pilgrims on August 1, 2000 in Pahalgam area, killing 30 people, who also included porters.
The attack prompted the authorities to hold a series of meetings in Srinagar and Delhi to review the security for the annual pilgrimage and ponder where it all went wrong.
Inspector General of
Police (Kashmir range) Munir Ahmed Khan on Tuesday claimed that the J&K police has received “credible inputs” pointing towards the involvement of Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba (LeT) in Monday’s gory incident. However, the LeT strongly denied the charge and sought to blame the killings on Intelligence agencies.