Threat to petrol pumps, liquor stores in J&K

The Tehrik-i-Taliban on Friday said it will attack petrol pumps, liquor stores, cable operators and apartments rented out to non-local labourers in militant infested Sopore town of north Kashmir.

Reports said threat posters bearing initials of ‘Tehrik-i-Taliban Jammu and Kashmir’ surfaced in several areas of the town warning petrol pump owners of dire consequences if they refuel vehicles belonging security forces. The posters also warned people who indulge in gambling or households where gambling takes place.Cable operators have been asked to stop showing Indian shows while people selling alcohol and drugs have been asked to immediately stop such “un-Islamic” activities.

“Change yourselves for better and stop these immoral activities within seven days,” the outfit warned.

Without staking a direct claim on the attacks on telecom installations, the group said: “Action will be taken against people the way it is being taken against telecom installations.”

The threat comes in the backdrop of recent attacks on people associated with telecom sector in which two persons were killed and several others injured. This is for the first time posters bearing Taliban initials have surfaced in Kashmir.

Though security agencies in the Valley negate presence of Taliban, top Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan leader Wali Ur Rehman, in a rare video appearance, had in 2013 pledged to send fighters to Kashmir and wage a struggle for the implementation of Sharia rule in India.

On Thursday former chief of PoK based United Jihad Council (UJC) Azam Inquillabi had warned that Taliban fighters of Af-Pak region may enter Kashmir and engage Indian forces in fighting.

“I feel India is fortunate enough since this moment there aren’t those minds in Afghan and Pakistan Taliban who will ask their fellow fighters to reach Kashmir via Pakistan and Azad Kashmir. But now, the threat looms. India’s political and military command should concentrate over this threat and stop irritating Pakistan,” he had said in an interview to a local news portal.

Sources told Deccan Herald that the Taliban posters in Sopore have sent security agencies in tizzy. “It would be an embarrassment for the security agencies if Taliban has really sneaked into Kashmir. For the past several years, Army and other security agencies have been maintaining that reports of Taliban presence in Kashmir are baseless. Now the challenge has come,” they said.

Cellular company outlets in Sopore town are already shut since last several days after hitherto unknown terror outfit Lashker-e-Islam asked them to stop operations.

Though police says most of the towers were operating now, but reports suggested otherwise.
DH News Service