Faisal Shabir
Srinagar: Militants in the valley do not want engagement of local population with the government and hence are resorting to grenade attacks, inspector General of Police Kashmir Muneer Ahmad Khan said on Thursday.
Khan was speaking to INS in the aftermath of the grenade attack in Tral where Roads & Buildings Minister Mr Nayeem Akhtar was on an official visit.
The attack left two civilians dead and thirty injured including seven paramilitary soldiers.
When asked that various militant outfits including Hizb ul Mujahideen and Lashkari Toiba condemned the attack and blamed the security agencies for it he said that ‘had security forces suffered casualties in the attack they would have taken the credit for it but in case of civilian deaths they blame security forces.’
“If forces had suffered major casualities than civilians they would have claimed it but it is the other way around and they are blaming agencies for it,”Khan said.
“There was a huge rush of people and someone from the crowd lobbed the grenade towards the cavalcade of the minister in the busy market area,” replied IGP while rejecting claims that enough security measures were nit put in place.
