Even as traffic remained frozen on the highway for about two hours after Army fired shots in the air, police claimed that no militant attack had taken place at Hyderpora in outskirts of Srinagar on Saturday.
Srinagar Senior Superintendent of Police Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari, who visited Hyderpora area in the afternoon, claimed that there was no evidence of any militant attack on any security forces’ convoy. He confirmed that the Army’s quick reaction team had fired over a hundred rounds in the air but said that the shootout was “probably the result of some confusion”.
“Our observation in the last over 20 years of militancy is that whenever the guerrillas initiated an attack, there was some casualty. Like in the evening on the other day, today too there had been no evidence of the terrorist attack”, Mr. Bukhari told The Hindu .
The SSP however confirmed that a civilian had sustained injuries. “He has a wound on his leg but we believe he has been hit by a piece of glass near Rahim Motors. We are investigating”, Mr. Bukhari said.
Meanwhile, Kathua Superintendent of Police Mohan Lal told The Hindu that a cordon and search operation in Dayalu Chak and Jatha area, between the National Highway and the International Border yielded nothing on Saturday. He said that the operation had been launched by police and security forces after some people told the police that they had spotted some suspects in Army uniform, suggesting that it could be a group of militants. Traffic remained suspended on the highway for several hours as “a precautionary measure”, he said.
Mr. Lal said that the police had established in the last two days of investigation that the three militants who died in a fidayeen attack at Samba on Thursday had infiltrated through the International Border on Wednesday night. Four Armymen, four J&K police personnel and two civilians had also died in the twin strikes at Hiranagar and Samba on Thursday.
