3 days after blast, fear continues to rule highway

Fear seemed to be the order of the day along the Srinagar-Jammu highway on Sunday, three days a powerful blast ripped through a central reserve police force (CRPF) convoy, leaving more than 40 personnel of the force dead. All along the stretch from Samboora towards the site of the blast at Lethpora, forces personnel donning the riot-gear and weapons dotted the landscape. The otherwise bustling Lethpora appeared like a ghost town. 

The only sounds that resonated in the area were sirens of forces’ vehicles and television crews updating their studios of every action going on at the site. 

   

Any sight of an official vehicle heading towards the site made them to run towards the vehicle with their microphone and cameras, albeit only up to a permissible limit. The shattered glasses outside closed shops selling dry fruits and Kashmiri handicrafts are a common sight at the blast site, with locals rarely sighted around.

On one side of the highway (at the blast site), vehicles are allowed to move, with the forces personnel constantly asking the drivers to speed away. At some distance, men were seen sitting on shop-fronts discussing the nature of the Thursday’s blast.

Fear was visible on the face of MudasirReshi, a local who resides meters away from the blast site. 

Reshi, a shopkeeper, said he was at his shop along with five children from his family when the blast occurred.

“It was as if earth shook beneath our feet. And then a glass of my shop came crumbling down on us,” said Reshi, who got five stitches in his injured hand. Out of his shop next, Reshi said he saw bodies flying in the sky. 

“Initially I thought a helicopter had hit a nearby mobile tower. But then cries of forces personnel made me realise that it was an attack on them. I ran along with children into my house which is adjacent to my shop,” Reshi said.

There is hardly any house in the area whose windowpanes have not been broken. Inhabitants also point out towards the cracks in their houses to indicate the intensity of the blast. There are others in the locality who narrate similar tales.

“It was a tufaan (storm). We thank Almighty for saving us,” said a group of elderly men, sitting on a shop front. Away from the blast site, along the highway towards the Pampore railway station, forces personnel stop commuters, ask them to show their identity cards. Some are given a few batons while few lucky ones are left after a few invectives. 

A vegetable seller, Umar from Srinagar’s Mehjoor Nagar area, is in a dilemma whether to lay his kiosk at the designated place near the blast site or not.  “I have come to this place today after the blast. I am yet to decide on opening it (kiosk) or not,” he said.  After a wait of some 15 minutes, the vegetable seller decided to leave.All along the stretch from Lethpora to highway crossing, near hotel Silver Star, increased patrols of forces personnel accompanied by armored vehicles are a common scene.

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