Ahead of republic day, CASO returns to Srinagar again
Srinagar: The cordon and search operation (CASO) in the state’s summer capital continued for the second consecutive day on Monday with forces carrying out searches and frisking in Karan Nagar and Lal Bazar areas.
The CASO in Srinagar was witnessed after 17 years on Sunday when forces started door to door searches in Habba Kadal area of Old City. Reports said that besides door to door searches, the cell phones of the residents were also thoroughly checked by the forces.
The forces today launched CASO in Kak Sarai and Lal Bazar area of Srinagar, local sources said.
They informed that a heavy contingent of forces including J&K police arrived in their area and started checking and frisking of locals.
Witnesses said that the whole area was cordoned off by the forces and checking and search operations were started in the localities.
Reports informed that the door to door searches were launched in these areas following the inputs about the movement of the militants. However, both the search operations ended peacefully.
Panic gripped Srinagarities after back to back CASOs with locals terming it as ‘unnecessary harassment’.
A local from Lal Bazar wishing not to be named said that the government forces are unnecessarily ‘harassing’ the people on the pretext of CASO.
A police official of Lal Bazar Police Station told ‘Kashmir Vision’ that it was a routine exercise. “Yes search was launched in the area but it was a routine exercise,” he informed.
Meanwhile, the security has been beefed up in Kashmir following the inputs of a possible militant attack in the city ahead of the Republic Day celebrations, police officials said.
The security forces in Kashmir, especially the city, were put on heightened alert following recovery of two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in HMT area here over the past two days, the police official said.
The security forces have started carrying out area domination exercises in many parts of the city, including random vehicle checks and search operations, he said.