Another blast rocks Kashmir

This comes after militants carried out attacks at four places in the Valley on Tuesday, injuring four cops.

These incidents are occurring even as the state government gears up to revoke the Disturbed Areas Act (DAA) from some areas of the valley. An important meeting of the State Cabinet had been scheduled to discuss this on Wednesday. Once the DAA is revoked from some areas, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act  (AFSPA) will automatically get revoked in the same areas.

The Jamiatul Mujahideen (JeM) militant outfit, which owned the responsibility for these attacks, said that the militants wanted to send the state government the message that militancy had not been wiped out from Kashmir.

In an interesting turn of events, Dr Mustafa Kamal, chief spokesman of the ruling National Congress (NC) and uncle of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, on Tuesday, raised a finger towards the army. He claimed that the hand of the army in such incidents could not be ruled out as it opposed the revocation of the AFSPA. His statement was ridiculed by the army.

On Wednesday, Omar Abdullah claimed that Dr Kamal had been misquoted. He added in his statement, that an attempt was being made to create the impression that the state government and the army were working on divergent paths, which was not correct.

“J&K had a peaceful summer for which the credit first goes to the people of the state and then the state administration, police, central para-military forces and the army who worked jointly to ensure that all steps are taken in coordination with each other to ensure peace in the state,” said the chief minister.

He stated that no one could demonize the army, since it had proved time and again that it was a disciplined force which was governed by certain standard operating procedures and that particularly in the last one year, the army had gotten close to the people of the state because of the goodwill created by it among the masses.