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Kashmir : Terrorists target tourists

	July 17, 2006

Tourists have started leaving the Kashmir Valley in droves after the Tuesday, July 11, grenade attacks at five places across Srinagar. At least eight domestic tourists from Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bihar were killed, and more than 30 injured in the blasts.



Tuesday’s attacks which came within a span of three hours were the latest of a series carried out against domestic tourists in Kashmir this year. In earlier incidents, six tourists were killed and more than 50 injured in May and June this year. Though militant groups denied involvement in the attacks, the authorities say that they are to blame.



Observers say that the attacks on tourists ultimately hit the people of the valley for whom tourism is their bread and butter. Shopkeepers, hotel and shikara owners, pony-walas and all others associated with the tourism trade are equally affected by the terrorist strikes. Reflecting the concern, there was a complete shutdown in Tangmarg town, gateway to the Gulmarg tourist resort, in protest against the grenade attack on a tourist bus at Gulmarg in which 13 people were injured on Wednesday, July 12.



Observers see a pattern behind these blasts as Pakistan-based militant groups were feeling jittery over an overwhelming increase in the tourist traffic indicating that the valley was moving towards peace.



Interestingly, tourists from West Bengal were flooding the state. Tourists flocking the valley and local tourist operators reaping a windfall was enough to send chills in the rank and file of terrorist outfits. July 11 attacks were aimed at nullifying this advantage, top officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs said.



By hurling grenades at innocent and unsuspecting tourists, the plotters of the attacks intended to kill two birds with one stone. They wanted to spread fear among the enterprising tourists and to make it clear internationally that the situation in Kashmir was far from being normal.



This should be seen in the context that tourists were never targeted earlier even during the height of terrorism in the state, the official said.





Al Qaeda presence to be probed



The Centre has asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to probe claims that Al Qaeda has set up a wing in the state. The State Police has been asked to do voice test of the phone message to a local news agency from a man who claimed to be a spokesperson of the dreaded terrorist organisation.



The local call was traced to a STD booth located at Jamalhatta in Srinagar. The booth operator, who was questioned, has provided a brief description of the caller as being Kashmiri speaking.



A man calling himself Abu Al-Hadeed had contacted a local news agency in Srinagar on telephone and stated that J and K Al-Qaeda headed by Abu Abdur Rehman Ansari, chief commander, had been launched in the state.



State intelligence agencies have started a probe into the claim that the Al Qaeda had arrived in Jammu and Kashmir. The police has said that if the claim of Hadeed was correct it meant that now onwards moral and material support to the militants, operating in Jammu and Kashmir, would be made available by the Al-Qaeda.





Attack on Hindus in Jammu



As part of their campaign to bring about communal polarisation in Jammu and Kashmir, militants killed four Hindus, including two daughters of a state government employee in a village in the border district of Poonch in Jammu region on Wednesday, July 12. In another incident, militants killed a woman, Sakina Bi in a village in Rajouri district on July 13.



The Army killed two Pakistani militants of the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Bandipora area on July 13.



The state observed Martyrs Day on July 13 to remember those who scarified their lives fighting the Dogra rule in 1931.



Amid a general strike called by separatists, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and National Conference president Omar Abdullah led their parties in paying homage to the 22 martyrs who were fired upon outside the central jail in Srinagar.



On Wednesday, chairman of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in a veiled reference to the National Conference, alleged that the mainstream group was “exploiting the sentiments of Kashmiris and by celebrating martyrs’ day was humiliating the grand sacrifices made for liberation of Kashmir from alien rule”.



Separatists had called for a general strike on Thursday and all shops and business establishments were closed for the day.