SRINAGAR, India, 16 January 2007 — Kashmir militants yesterday fired a rifle grenade at the heavily guarded residence of moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Police said the grenade exploded in the backyard of Mirwaiz Umar’s house in the Nageen district of Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar.
The Mirwaiz, who is chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), was in Jammu, the state’s winter capital, at the time of the attack.
No one was injured and there was no damage to the house even though policemen guarding the house were heard firing a few shots immediately after the explosion.
Police and paramilitary troops rushed to the spot and the area was cordoned off. Searches were conducted but no arrests made. Dozens of angry supporters of the Mirwaiz took to the streets and threw rocks at police, who responded with tear gas in Nowhatta district in Srinagar, considered to be the separatist leader’s stronghold, said Bashir Ahmed Khan, the superintendent of police. No injuries were immediately reported.
No group claimed responsibility for the explosion and the largest Kashmiri group of fighters, the Hizbul Mujahedeen, condemned it.
“Whatever has happened is wrong,” said Ehsan Elahi, a Pakistan-based spokesman for Hizb.
At a news conference in Jammu, the Mirwaiz said: “I won’t be cowed down by such attacks. Those days when people could be frightened into silence are over.” He blamed the attack on “forces opposed to peace in Kashmir.”
Umar Farooq met leaders of minority Pundit community in Jammu. He is scheduled to visit Pakistan later this week at the head of an APHC delegation for talks with Pakistani leaders.
Umar’s father, Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq, was killed by unidentified assailants inside the Nageen residence at the beginning of the present militant campaign in Kashmir in 1990.
