Three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and a civilian were injured after militants attacked paramilitary deployment party blast in Sangrama area of Sopore in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Tuesday.
Reports said militants lobbed a grenade towards the CRPF party near Sangrama Chowk, 47 kms from here, in which three paramilitary men and a civilian sustained splinter injuries. They were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Soon after the incident, security forces launched searches in the area to nab the attackers, he said.
Militants have been attacking security forces with grenades frequently since last summer, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear, like the early 1990’s when they were common occurrences. Thousands of people have been injured, maimed and crippled for life in the last almost three decades of conflict in the Valley because of grenade attacks.
“And if the attacks from one year is an indication, it is that militants have revived the strategy of lobbing grenades at security forces and on the roads. Throwing grenades at busy places is either aimed to provoke the security forces to fire indiscriminately or create a fear among them that they are vulnerable to such attacks,” a senior police officer said.
“The use of grenades also allows the attackers to go incognito in the crowd, without being detected or identified. The grenades are lobbed mostly by upper ground workers of the militants, which makes it even more dangerous,” he added.