Date:08/04/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/04/08/stories/2005040809821100.htm

National

Militants attempt to thwart service

By Shujat Bukhari

SRINAGAR, APRIL 7. Militants tossed a grenade at a group of people who had gathered to see the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus at Pattan, a highway town 27 km northwest of here. Four persons were injured, police said.

Militants targeted a security force patrol wounding two troopers at Chana Khan in Sopore town, off the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, police said. A bomb disposal squad defused an improvised explosive device planted near a petrol pump in the area, reports said.

Earlier, gunmen shot and wounded Sheeraz Ahmed Naikoo at Pratapora Shopian in southern Pulwama district. Police said that in a firefight at Shariefabad on the outskirts of Srinagar between security forces and gunmen overnight, one militant was killed. Police also reported crossfiring at Chalad in Udhampur district in which a girl, Hasina was injured.

Normal life was affected in the Valley on Thursday as a result of a protest strike called by four obscure militant outfits. The four groups — al-Nasirin, al-Aarifin, Farzandan-e-Millat and Save Kashmir Movement — issued a statement saying that they had constituted special squads named "shaheedi daste" to target the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus in the future. It added that the bus service was against the interests of the people of Kashmir and the "freedom struggle."