Srinagar, June 19: The police have asked the security forces deployed in Srinagar to be on an alert and take “immediate preventive measures” after intelligence inputs suggested that militants are planning to carry out attacks in the city.Three senior police officers confirmed the alert had been issued. The alert, marked “top secret” and “urgent,” was issued by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir zone.However, it was leaked on social media sites, which a senior officer said could have happened by mistake. “It is a routine alert which is issued from time to time,” IGP, Kashmir, Muneer Khan, told The Tribune.However, the contents of the message suggested that police had a detailed intelligence input that an attack was imminent. The inputs had revealed that movement of militants was observed in downtown Srinagar — the densely populated old city.The alert came when there has been a spurt in incidents of violence in the Kashmir valley during the recent weeks. Just a few days ago, 14 persons, including eight policemen, three militants and three civilians, were killed in separate attacks.Though most of the militant activity has remained limited to south Kashmir, central Kashmir’s Budgam and Srinagar district are also registering a spillover effect. Srinagar, which the security agencies had once described as a zero-militancy district, has re-emerged on a militant map as four local youths have joined the militant ranks in recent months.Sources in the police said presence of some local militants had been traced in Srinagar in recent days and the latest alert may be linked to their activities.The inputs, according to the communique, revealed that militants planned to carry out grenade attack and indiscriminate firing on “security forces, camps, establishments and deployments”. The alert, issued on Saturday, also specified that the attack might take place in Srinagar’s Noorbagh, Nowhatta and Eidgah areas “within next two days.”It also asked security forces to take “immediate preventive measures” and develop the input to “track and neutralise these operatives.”
