Sopur, Feb 25: Few yards away from police station in Arampora locality of Sopur, women jostle to get water for their homes as the Public Health Engineering department tanker reaches this besieged part of the town. The cops face tough time to control the women haplessly waiting, but all are not lucky and many return disappointed without fetching water.
The siege which began on Tuesday morning entered the third day on Thursday as the troopers continued to search for bodies in the debris of the destroyed houses.
Apart from consuming six lives which includes four troopers and two militants, the residents of Arampora, Chinkipora and main chowk had also to bear the burnt of the gunfight who have been caged in their houses for past three days.
Residents of the besieged area told Greater Kashmir that they have been confined within four walls of their houses for past three days.
“We are inside the houses as troopers are deployed at every nook and corner. They had asked us to stay indoors as the gunfight was going on,” said locals, adding that they were running short of water.
“We are also running short of essential commodities and we couldn’t take our ailing children to hospital due to curfew-like situation,” they added.
“We heard gunshots on Tuesday morning after troopers moved in and in the evening there were big explosions. But it has been calm since yesterday afternoon. Why don’t they lift the siege? The encounter spot is one kilometers away from this place?” said a resident of Arampora.
An eerie silence prevails in the lane leading to the encounter spot and only activity is the movement of troopers. The silence is broken by the sound of helicopters hovering over the sky in the besieged area.
After walking a few meters, the troopers did not allow this reporter to go to the spot.The magnitude of destruction can be gauged from the fact that a tin sheet was visible hanging on a tree more than 400 meters away from the spot of encounter.
An interaction with troopers and cops revealed that four houses have been destroyed and other adjoining houses have suffered partial damage due to blasting.
“They have razed many houses after blasting them in search of militants,” the locals added.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 IST