Hurriyat calls for bandh on Aug 15

"Militants operating in Kashmir are continuously receiving directions for the past few days from across the border to carry out more deadly attacks," intelligence sources said. The official sources said police, paramilitary forces and the Army had been directed to keep a round-the-clock vigil.

Patrolling has been intensified and vehicles were being searched and pedestrians frisked to detect explosives.

The Hurriyat Conference has called for a general strike on August 15 for what it called "to demonstrate to the world that the freedom struggle in Kashmir will go on till its reaches its logical end".

Thursday’s car bomb explosion and a series of massacres across the State earlier are considered a prelude to a fresh spell of escalation in violence, the sources said.

The sources said a sense of insecurity persisted among people even two days after car bomb blast in the city. Most of the busy business markets wore a deserted look and the usual hustle and bustle was absent, the added.

They said there were fewer people on the roads as they avoided busy areas fearing more militant attacks.

Hurriyat chairman Prof Abdul Gani Bhat in a statement reiterated the Conference’s demand for an impartial probe into Pahalgam and other massacres.

Meanwhile, seven people, including an Army captain and five ultras, were killed and six Army personnel injured in Jammu division where security forces recovered a large quantity of arms and explosives since Friday.

The encounter took place when a group of six militants sneaked from across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Indian side in Ratti-Mitti area of Keri sub-sector in Poonch, an official spokesman said on Saturday.

Five militants, belonging to Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HUJI) were shot dead in a fierce battle, which was still continuing in the area, he said.

An Army officer, Captain Shekhar Gosh, succumbed to his injuries, while two more jawans who sustained bullet wounds during the encounter have been hospitalised.

In another incident, a group of militants entered into the house of one Mir Hussain at Behrote village in Poonch district and shot him dead, the spokesman said.

A Junior Commissioned Officer and three jawans were injured when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), which they were trying to defuse, exploded at Lasana village on Surankote-Poonch road, he said.

Troops also detected and neutralised a powerful IED at another place on the Poonch road. It contained ten kgs of RDX, the spokesman said.

Troops during searches in the house of one Mohammad Ishaq of Kandi Gala in Budhal tehsil of Rajouri district recovered one full bag of explosives containing eleven grenades, three RPG bombs and five other bombs, he said.