Click to play videoSrinagar: After a grueling 22 hours, the Fidayeen attack in Kashmir finally came to an end. While two terrorists holed up inside a hotel in the heart of Srinagar were killed during the gunbattle, government sources reveal that more Fidayeen attacks may just be in the offing after two years of near quiet.
Srinagar's Lal Chowk relived its turbulent history after a long break. The gunbattle ended with the death of a CRPF jawan, a policeman and a civilian.
“Both militants belong to Lashkar, one is a foreigner and another a local. We have found two bodies in the hotel,” J-K DGP Kuldeep Khuda said.
For the security forces, it was a task far tougher than the 22-hour gunbattle suggests. They had a double task – get the terrorists and protect the nearly 150 people trapped in the buildings and shopping complex surrounding the hotel, some of them stuck for more than 20 hours.
“We were trapped but luckily police rescued us. There were 10 people who were trapped in an adjoining hotel,” a civilian said.
The bold attack comes just days after the security establishment said that violence in the Valley was the lowest in 2009 in the past several years. It also became a political firefight, with the Opposition PDP hinting at a wider conspiracy behind the attack.
“There are some vested interests in militants and agencies. Why do such attacks take place when there is talk of troop cut,” Mehbooba Mufti said.
In New Delhi, top Government sources say that more terrorists have entered the Valley, suggesting that there might be more such attacks in the future.
But the daring attack in the heart of Srinagar has punctured the Government’s claim that militancy is down and peace is round the corner. The fact on the ground, as this attack shows, is that Srinagar continues to be dangerous and unpredictable. Its people too continue to live on the edge.
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