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Security forces embarrassed by
Srinagar airport attack

Explaining how some militants managed to reach the main gate of what is considered the 'most highly secured airport in South Asia', senior police officers in Srinagar are saying that the vehicle carrying the six militants 'closely followed a cavalcade escorting a minister to the airport'.

Security personnel have been visibly embarrassed by the incident, for which the Laskar-e-Tayiba has claimed responsibility.

The minister in question is Ali Mohammad Sagar, Jammu and Kashmir's Works Minister, who was on his way to the airport to catch a flight for Jammu.

Budgam district police chief Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari told rediff.com that the police had specific information that the militants were planning to attack the airport.

"We had erected barricades at Humhama nearly two kms from the airport on Monday," he says.

The jeep, which the militants had hijacked, Bukhari says, was following Sagar's motorcade. Smelling something fishy, cops manning the Humhama barricade immediately followed the jeep, which by then had managed to reach the main gate.

The militants attacked the Central Reserve Police Force guards manning it.

Coming out of the jeep, the militants hurled grenades and followed it with heavy firing from automatic weapons.

Two militants, a senior police officer said sneaked inside the X-ray room where the passengers' baggage are searched. Two were killed in the retaliatory fire by the CRPF personnel while two others entered a shopping complex adjacent to the main gate.

Army and specially trained commandos rushed towards the main gate and engaged the militants before finally overpowering them. All six militants were killed.

After a massive search of the entire premises, the airport was re-opened on Wednesday. Flights from Delhi began landing on Wednesday afternoon.

However, security all around the airport has been further tightened. On Wednesday, no vehicles were allowed beyond the main gate.

Passengers were provided transport up to the main building. Additional barricades have been erected on the road leading to the airport.

The area around the airport was tense. Shouting pro-freedom and religious slogans, hundreds of people took out a procession demanding the bodies of the militants be handed over to them for burial.

On being turned away by the security forces, the crowd pelted stones at them.

The security personnel fired tear gas shells and resorted to a baton charge to disperse the mob.

One report said the bodies were later handed over to locals.

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