Srinagar: A fire in a Srinagar’s prominent market was narrowly averted in the dead of night, officials said on Monday, suspecting that shop owners who have defied an undeclared shutdown against the abrogation of Article 370 are being targeted.
Late on Sunday night, an inflammable substance was sprinkled on a few shops in Lambert Lane market on Residency Road but alert residents of the building foiled the attempt to set the shops on fire, officials said.
“Late on Sunday night, we noticed smell of petrol around the building and we quickly went downstairs to check. There was no one around, but the fuel had been sprinkled on a few shops,” said a resident of the building, who preferred to remain anonymous. We informed the market association members who in turn alerted the police, he said.
This was the third such instance in as many nights as unknown persons carried out similar acts at Budshah Chowk, right in front of the highly guarded Akhara Building on Saturday night, and at Goni Khan near Hari Singh High Street, the night earlier.
A senior police official said the incidents are being investigated and strict action will be taken against those found involved in these acts.
There have been several mysterious fire incidents in the city, in which shops have been destroyed or partially damaged during the night, after the abrogation of Article 370 provisions on August 5.
While most of the targeted shops have been in the areas where markets were open beyond the self-imposed deadline of noon closure to protest the repeal of special status of Jammu and Kashmir, police has so far maintained that the fires were caused by electric short circuit.
Last month, militants carried out a grenade attack in Amira Kadal area leaving two persons dead and more than 30 others injured.
Earlier, a shopkeeper was shot dead in Parimpora area of the city while five members of a family were shot at and injured in Sopore area of north Kashmir since August 5. Both the attacks were linked to the defiance of the shutdown ‘diktat’.
Meanwhile, internet shutdown continued across the Valley on all the platforms. Pre-paid mobile phones and internet continues to be suspended since August 5 when the government of India abrogated the special constitutional status and downsized the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.
—PTI

Press Trust of India