SRINAGAR: Panic gripped Kashmir’s commercial centre today when security forces launched a sudden search operation in the area.
The local police and personnel of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF cordoned the Lal Chowk in capital Srinagar at around 3:15pm this afternoon and asked people to form queues.
Taking people by surprise, the security forces began frisking the civilians and checked their identity cards, a local news agency KNS reports.
The search operation also led to massive traffic jam as commuters found it hard to move through the road.
This is for the first time after 2010 that police launched such an operation in this peopled area, congested with vehicles, street vendors and tourists.
It is not clear why the police and the CRPF launched such a spontaneous operation.The Inspector General of Police Kashmir zone A.G Mir told the news agency “we want to prevent any untoward ancient. That is why the area was cordoned.”
Mir said that none was arrested during the search.
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