Government Forces on Monday night called off their operation against ‘hiding militants’ when people in large number hit to roads and resorted to stone-pelting in Newa area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
Sources told news agency CNS that after receiving inputs about the presence of militants in Lonepora Newa area, 55 Rashtriya Rifles, SOG of Jammu and Kashmir Police and 183 Battalion CRPF cordoned off the area at around 10 pm on Monday. Police sources said there were inputs about the presence of some top Lashkar-e-Toiba militants in the area.
Eyewitnesses said that as the search operation was going on, locals in large number hit to roads and resorted to massive stone-pelting. They hampered the operation while some of the youth used public address system asking people to come out from the houses. Witnesses added that in order to disperse the agitated people, Government Forces used tear-smoke shells, however, people still showed stiff resistance.
Witnesses added that people from adjacent areas including Karimabad, Wahibugh also hit to roads and played patriotic numbers on the loud speakers. Confirming the incident, an official said that the operation was concluded at 11:30 pm. “Some miscreants pelted stones on the search party and tried to hamper the operation,” he said.
