SRINAGAR: Senior leaders of the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHG), Abdul Gani Lone and Syed Ali Shah Geelani survived attempts on their lives the seventh in one year48a powerful car bomb exploded near their house and some unidentified gunmen fired at their residences around midnight.

Official Sources said the car bomb, planted near the house of Lone at Rawalpora in uptown Srinagar by unidentified gunmen, injured two members of Lone’s People’s Conference Party.

However, Lone and his family members escaped unhurt in the powerful Dist which caused extensive damage to his house, a nearby building and the boundary wall of the house.

Fifteen shops on the road near his house were gutted and five residential houses were partially damaged in the explosion which was heard throughout the city.

Minutes after the blast outside Lone’s house, unidentified gunmen hurled a grenade and then fired at the house of another senior Hurriyat leader, Geelani at Hyderpora on Srinagar airport road.

The police guards posted at the house retimed the fire but no loss of life was reported.

Geelani was provided police guards gently following repeated attacks _ his house by unidentified gunmen during last year.

The APHCE blamed the “Indian Army and Indian agents” for the attack saying “it was a preplanned conspiracy to eliminate the leaders of the APHC and make the people politically orphan.”

The Army authorities termed these allegations as “baseless and ridiculous.”

Police say that RDX was used for this explosion which was similar to the ones which took place in Delhi and Rajasthan in the last few weeks where the involvement of Kashmiri militants has been suspected. The blast also damaged 14 houses including that of Bihar Governor Mohammad Shafi Qurashi. Mohammad Sultan, a member of Lone’s party the People’s Conference claimed that he had seen two army vehicles leading an ambassador car moving on the road near his leader’s residence minutes before the blast. Sundari, a neighbor of Lone, said she heard a loud explosion followed by firing shots. “We ran out in panic, I just wanted to jump out of my first floor room to escape leaping flames,” she said.

Other Hurriyat leaders Yasin Malik, Mirwaiz Omer Faroog, Sayed Ali Shah Geelani and Javed Mir visited Lone to express their solidarity. Yasin Malik told media persons that Indian government wanted to eliminate all the Hurriyat leaders by launching a spate of attacks against them. “The Indian Government should tell us plainly about their plans we will offer ourselves to get killed,” he said.

Article extracted from this publication >>  June 12, 1996