Kar survives rifle grenade attack on Sopore house

Police launches manhunt for Muz Maulvi in killing of two sisters

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Feb 2: In a day of the assassination of two young daughters of a poor labourer, seniormost Congress leader Ghulam Rasool Kar today survived yet another militant strike at his residence in Sopore township of Baramulla district. Even as both factions of the separatist Hurriyat Conference have begun to condemn the gruesome double murder and militant outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba has denied its involvement in the Muslim Peer slaying, Police have launched a manhunt to arrest or eliminate the dreaded guerrilla operative Muzaffar Ahmed Naikoo alias Muz Maulvi in North Kashmir.

Informed sources told Early Times that around 0955 hours, suspected militants fired two rifle grenades towards the CRPF-guarded private residential house of senior Congress leader, Ghulam Kasool Kar, at Town Hall in Sopore township of North Kashmir. The first one exploded in the air and failed to hit the target but the following one landed precisely on the courtyard. It went off with a deafening blast but the inmates, as well as the CRPF guards, escaped the brunt. Glazed windows and ventilators of the house suffered minor damage.

Sources said that 90-year-old Kar, who had returned from New Delhi and reached home last evening, was present in his bedroom when his residence came under attack in the forenoon. He came out while loudly hurling invectives on militants and asked Police and CRPF officials to ferociously strike on “these terrorists”. He was heard shouting that such dastardly attacks would never succeed in terrorizing him.

A die-hard pro-India politician, Kar has survived several attacks on his life. In one of such strikes, he had a providential escape when a militant gunned down his PSO, Hakoomat Singh, but his gun got accidentally locked on the main road outside a mosque at Jamia Qadeem in old town Sopore about a decade ago.

Not holding any position in top brass of his party now, Kar has served in the past as President of J&K Pradesh Congress Committee and a Minister in the state governments headed by Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq, Syed Mir Qasim and Dr Farooq Abdullah. He has also functioned as a member of the state Legislature and Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha. He also happens to be the printer and publisher of Congress party’s official organ, daily Khidmat, published from Srinagar.

Officials, however, insisted that the militants’ real target was Superintendent of Police of Sopore, Altaf Khan, whose residence as well as office are next door to the Congress leader. In a hard-hitting statement on Tuesday, Khan had held Lashkar-e-Toiba responsible for killing two young daughters of one Ghulam Nabi Dar at Muslim Peer. He had also identified three militants of the group, including the locals Muzaffar Ahmed Naikoo alias Muz Maulvi of Khushaal Matoo and Waseem Ahmed Ganai of Chinkipora, as the killers of the young female duo.

Having survived a number of militant strikes, Khan had a providential escape when militants tossed RPGs straight into his bedroom at the midnight on December 6^th, 2010. He had shifted to an adjoining room minutes before in search of something. In an earlier broad daylight strike on him at entrance of Police Station Sopore earlier, he had an equally narrow escape though one of his driver-guards got killed.

Since today’s strike occurred in a high security zone, that also houses headquarters of CRPF 179 Bn and BSNL exchange, more than one guerrilla groups claimed responsibility. In a statement, LeT spokesperson, Jameel Ahmed, told a local news agency that militants of his organization had attacked Kar’s residence after learning of his return from Delhi. He claimed that Kar had, however, returned to Delhi when his house came under attack. The spokesman made it clear that all pro-India politicians were on the hit list of his outfit as India, according to him, would not have succeeded in establishing its foothold without support from Kashmir’s mainstream political activists. Striking on these politicians, he said, was LeT’s “top most priority”.

According to KNS, spokesman of Al-Badar Mujahideen, Mohammad Qasim, claimed that cadres of his group had actually attacked CRPF battalion headquarters and left several paramilitaries injured.

Meanwhile, Early Times learned from authoritative sources that J&K Police, CRPF as well as Army had launched a manhunt to arrest or eliminate local militants, Muz Maulvi and Waseem Ganai, in entire Sopore belt. These militants, according to Police, had kidnapped and gunned down 17-year-old Aarifa and 20-year-old Akhtara, daughters of Ghulam Nabi Dar in Muslim Peer locality the other day. Killing of the young women has spread a wave of terror in Sopore which was evident when not more than 100 residents participated in their funeral rites yesterday. Silent condemnation was nevertheless in evidence everywhere in the Valley.

Issuing a statement from New Delhi today, separatist hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani condemned the double murder in his home town. He called upon separatist leaders to visit Dar’s residence. A number of other separatist leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and JKLF Chairman Yasin Malik, have also condemned the brutal slaying. However, in sharp contrast to previous incidents like that of Shopian in May 2009, in which Police and government agencies were suspected, none of the separatist leaders has either visited the Sopore family or called a shutdown against the killings. Absence of such reaction from the Valley’s human rights groups, media and separatist leaders, has led Kashmiris to believe it as the handiwork of separatist militants.

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