Srinagar, Jan 2: Two paramilitary Border Security Force troopers were injured when militants shot at them on Saturday at Soura on the city outskirts. Later, in the evening militants hurled a grenade on a Central Reserve Police Force camp near Palladium Theatre in Lal Chowk, which, however, did not explode.
 Police said militants appeared near a busy marketplace at Soura and shot at two BSF troopers from a close range when they were withdrawing money from an ATM in the area. “Two BSF troopers have been wounded in the firing,” Senior Superintendent of Police, Javed Riyaz Bedar, told Greater Kashmir. He said a police constable present on the spot fired at the militants but they managed to flee from the spot.
 The injured, identified as head constable Saif-ud-Din Ahmad and Darminder Singh of 75 battalion and 26 battalion BSF, were shifted to the nearby Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences. “Both are out of danger,” the SSP said.
 After the incident, police and CRPF troopers cordoned off the area to conduct searches. They searched and frisked the pedestrians and commuters.
 The firing caused panic in the area with the locals running helter-skelter for cover. Shopkeepers pulled down their shutters while the vehicular traffic came to a halt for short while.
 Later at about 6.30 p.m., police said that militants hurled a grenade towards a CRPF picket near Palladium Theatre which did not explode. Police called out the Bomb Disposal Squad and defused the device.
 Saturday’s incidents happened in the midst of police and other paramilitary forces beefing up the security in the wake of the recent attacks on their men. In fact, today’s shootout at Soura and the grenade attack in the high security Lal Chowk area came after a lull of about two months in the city. On November 1 last year, militants had targeted unarmed policemen at Qamarwari chowk injuring two of them.
 Pertinently, there has been a sudden spurt in militants attacks on the troopers during recent weeks. On December 30, 2009, four CRPF troopers were killed when militants lobbed a grenade on the patrolling party in North Kashmir’s Sopur town. Earlier, on December 23, two policemen were killed and another was injured in an attack near Kadalbal in Pampore town when militants fired upon them.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 2 Jan 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 3 Jan 2010 00:00:00 IST