Chitragam: The militants suspected to have killed two non-Kashmiri civilians in Shopian Thursday also allegedly sabotaged an electricity transmission tower in the area to engineer a blackout in the Valley.
Authorities suspect that this sabotage attempt may be the new modus operandi of a joint group of Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba militants looking to create terror in Kashmir and India at large over the scrapping of Article 370.
This group is also believed to be responsible for the killing of three other non-Kashmiris over the past two weeks.
When ThePrint visited Shopian’s Chitragam village — the site of Thursday’s killings — a team comprising personnel from the Army, CRPF and Jammu & Kashmir Police was busy fixing the tower. A combing operation was simultaneously underway for the assailants.
The 400 KW Kishanpur-Wagoora line distributes electricity to different parts of the Valley and the transmission tower belongs to the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, a state-owned Maharatna company.
“The militants had managed to inflict enough damage on the transmission tower to make it fall and cause massive blackouts across several parts of Kashmir,” a senior CRPF officer posted in the area said.
“They managed to cut two limbs of the tower,” the officer added. “We assume that gas in their mechanical cutters might have finished before they could have damaged all the four limbs.”
The falling of the tower, officials of the repair team said, would have immediately snapped transmission lines, causing blackouts in the Valley.
Police officers claimed that leaving the tower partially damaged might have been a scare tactic.
Throughout Thursday night, personnel of J&K police, the Army and the CRPF put in place quick but temporary measures to keep the tower standing. For example, wooden logs and iron roads were used support the structure.
By morning, a team of engineers and other officials from the electricity department had been brought in under a massive security cover to fix the tower.
A senior J&K police officer said attacks on electricity towers was a new development. “Previously, mobile towers were targeted by militant groups in Sopore but electricity towers is new. We are investigating the matter,” the officer added.
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‘We locked our doors’
Piecing together the events of Thursday night, a senior CRPF officer said militants had first vandalised the tower and then opened fire on three apple-laden trucks passing by on the main road 200 metres away.
Amid the lockdown that followed the scrapping of Article 370, militants had allegedly issued posters warning people against engaging in sales and purchases of the Valley’s famed apples. The idea was to maintain the ‘people’s curfew’ begun by local residents in the initial days of the lockdown.
Travelling at a distance of 300 metres from each other, the three trucks together had three drivers and a conductor.
While the two men in the first truck were killed by the militants’ bullets, police said, the driver of the second was shot at but survived.
They were identified as Ilyas Khan, Riyaz Khan and Jeevan Singh (the driver of the second truck). One of the deceased victims was from Rajasthan, but the roots of the second are still being determined. Jeevan is reportedly from Punjab.
The third driver, meanwhile, drove his truck into a ditch while trying to escape.
“After realising that he won’t be able to reverse the vehicle successfully, he decided to run and managed to escape,” a senior J&K police officer said.
The damaged transmission tower was discovered during the ensuing combing operation.
“We immediately secured the place and the tower. If the tower had fallen, there would have been massive blackouts… it might have also caused fires in the area,” said a second senior CRPF officer.
Residents contacted by ThePrint said they hadn’t seen the attack but did hear gunshots. “When we heard gunshots, we closed the doors of our homes,” said one woman.
Thursday’s attack was the fourth against non-Kashmiris over the past two weeks: A truck driver from Rajasthan, Sharief Khan, was the first victim, killed on 14 October, the same day mobile connectivity was restored in the Valley after over two months.
Two people were killed in as many attacks 48 hours later — a brick kiln worker named S.K. Sagar from Chhattisgarh and fruit trader Charanjeet Singh from Punjab.
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