J&K militants attack telecom service providers with grenades in Srinagar
24 Jul 2015
Militants targeted telecommunication services in Kashmir yet again, lobbing grenades inside the showrooms of mobile service providers Vodafone and Aircel in the heart of capital Srinagar today.
The attacks came around 11 am at Karan Nagar in Srinagar where showrooms of Aircel and Vodafone were targeted.
The attackers reportedly evacuated the showrooms of all the employees and customers before triggering the blast. So, no casualties were reported and no one was also injured in the incidents which took place within minutes of each other.
Ironically, the Aircel office is located less than 300 metres from zonal police headquarters while the Vodafone showroom is around 500 metres further.
Police said all check points in the city have been alerted after the incident.
While no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks so far, the attacks have come a day after Hizbul Mujahideen expelled it's top commander Abdul Quyoom Najar for involvement in a similar attack six weeks ago and for killing six people.
This time, however, the attackers were careful that innocent people are not killed.
In May, militants had targeted mobile telecommunication facilities in north Kashmir's Sopore town by carrying out grenade attacks. The attacks later spread to nearby Pattan town before militants carried out similar strikes on mobile installations.
In May and June, six people were killed and several cellphone towers were attacked in north Kashmir.
Two months ago, unidentified gunmen had killed an employee of BSNL franchise outlet in Sopore and also shot dead a former militant who had installed mobile tower in his house in Dooru. After the attacks many tower owners suspended their operations.
