Srinagar, March 16 (IANS) A shop worker was killed and four people, including two troopers, were injured Tuesday in a militant attack in the capital’s crowded business centre of Lal Chowk - the second in the city in three days, police said.
Three militants opened fire with automatic weapons from a close range at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) posse in the main business hub of the city when the area was bustling with shoppers in the morning, city police chief Javaid Riyaz told IANS.

He said five people — three civilians and two CRPF troopers — were injured in the firing before the guerrillas escaped in the labyrinthine lanes of Lal Chowk, the heart of Srinagar.

“One injured civilian identified as Khurshid Ahmad Parray, a salesman in a local shop, succumbed to injuries in a hospital,” Riyaz said.

Panic gripped the area and people, mostly shoppers, were seen running for the cover when they heard gunshots. Shopkeepers downed their shutters and unattended vehicles remained parked on the deserted roads for hours.

The area was cordoned off for searches but the militants had already fled in the high tension and confusion that gripped the busy business centre in the wake of the firing.

No militant group has owned up the responsibility of the attack, which comes after a grenade explosion Sunday killed a paramilitary trooper and left five injured. The grenade attack was claimed by Save Kashmir Movement militant outfit.

Save Kashmir Movement, which has claimed responsibility for similar attacks earlier and many political killings in the Kashmir Valley, is believed to be a joint brigade of militant outfits like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen.

Police said the condition of the troopers and two civilians injured in the Lal Chowk firing was critical. They have been shifted to a sophisticated hospital because of “critical injuries”, the police officer said.

The two CRPF troopers are constable Basant Kumar and head constable Omkar Ram of 132 Battalion.

Lal Chowk, which lies in the heart of the city, has been at the centre of 20-year-old armed separatist insurgency in the Kashmir Valley. The attack is the latest in the surge of violence in Jammu and Kashmir where officials had been claiming decline in militancy. Security agencies, however, fear that militants might have used the lull in the past year to re-group.

Security forces have been put on red alert in the city as authorities feared more violence in the city.