SRINAGAR: Kashmiri militants belonging to the JKLF fired a rocket at the State secretariat here May 11, killing two employees and injuring two others.
The rocket hit the fifth floor of the seven story building at Karam Nagar shortly before noon when the offices were opened and the attendance was: full.
According to eyewitnesses, the rocket was fired from the rear site and hit the state Planning Department office directly.
Four employees were injured as the rockets pierced through the fifth floor office of the Planning Department Two of the injured, Mohammad Ashraf and Roshan Lal, succumbed to their wounds, while Mohammad Amin Banday was hospitalized, Abdul Rashid, another employee of the same department was discharged after first aid.
The outlawed Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (KLF) claimed the responsibility for the attack within the minutes of happening.
The state secretariat here is one of the heavily guarded buildings in Kashmir with observation towers on all sides and top of the building manned round the clock by paramilitary forces. The road in front of the secretarial has been closed for traffic in view of security risk.
However, ever since the reopening of the offices after six months’ stay at Jammu, the winter capital of the state, on Monday, Srinagar was agog with rumors that militants might launch @ rocket attack on the secretariat.
The adjoining thickly populated residential areas like Batmaloo had been deserted by residents following the report.
A large population, particularly women and boys, from Batmaloo and several other areas of Srinagar had shifted to relatively safer places, fearing preemptive searches by the security forces. “We were numbed by a big explosion around 11750 a.m., with in seconds, it was all rubble, smoke and cries of the injured heard,” said Amit Kushani, Secretary Science and Technology, whose office is just next to the planning office.
Boule gripped the state secretariat, where all the government offices are located, as the employees from all floors rushed downstairs for safety. Most employees left the place with the body of their killed colleague.
The security forces immediately took position around the building and senior officers, including the Adviser to the Govemor, Ashok Jaitely, the Additional Director General of Police, M.A.Nomani, and the Chief Secretary, Seikh Gulam Rasool, visited the scene after the explosion.
The security forces have cordoned off the localities around the secretariat from where the rockeL1s expected to have been fired.
A large number of employees have left for safer places. Some of them have left for Jammu in taxis.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 21, 1993
