KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
The recent attack on BSNL showroom in restive Sopore has created panic in the town with telecom operators shutting their services to avoid “becoming the next target of unknown gunmen”, who have reportedly shot dead another civilian on Tuesday.
Finding themselves at the receiving end, most of the mobile recharge shops are either winding up their services or have closed down their shops. “Many locals in whose yards mobile towers have been erected have severed the services,” said a journalist from Sopore. “The killings have set off great panic in the town.”
Notably, on Monday an employee of the BSNL was killed and two others sustained injuries when unidentified gunmen attacked the BSNL showroom in the main market Sopore. Though the police said they have arrested four suspected persons in connection with the killing of an employee, but even then, said the local journalist, “a panic is too palpable in the town where the telecom operators have removed the sign boards from their outlets.” This has triggered mobile recharge crisis in the town.
Panic started beefing up after the posters warning mobile operators to wind up their services surfaced in the town. Police said behind the warning was the trigger of “missing communication device installed by militants on a mobile tower” near Badam Bagh Sopore. To send a message, some unidentified men lobbed two grenades near an Airtel tower in Sopore last week followed by twin killings.
Though the government forces are saying the threats and subsequent attack on BSNL office was carried out by suspected militants, but the HM supremo, Syed Salahudin termed the attack a ‘handiwork of agencies’.
