Security personnel take position during a search operation after militants ambushed an Army convoy in Srinagar on Saturday. PTI

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 1

Just a day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to J&K, militants today surfaced in Srinagar and ambushed an Army convoy on the outskirts of Srinagar city, injuring at least three jawans.The ambush by militants, believed to be two to three in number, at the Bemina bypass along the Srinagar-Jammu national highway, took place in the afternoon when an Army convoy was on its way from border town of Uri in Baramulla to Srinagar.“Militants armed with assault rifles fired at the Army vehicles near a hospital on the Parimpora-Panthachowk bypass road which was retaliated. Three soldiers were injured in the ambush. The attackers managed to escape,” sources said, adding that the shootout created panic in the area.The attack took place despite the highway being secured by the Army and CRPF under the Road Opening Procedure (ROP), a daily drill to protect security vehicles that ply on the road.Soon after the attack, the police and CRPF cordoned off the locality and carried out searches to trace the militants involved in the attack.Defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said three injured soldiers were evacuated to the Army’s 92 Base Hospital.“The firing took place in the overcrowded area and the Army showed maximum restraint,” Col Kalia said.Militant group Hizbul Mujahideen in a statement to a Srinagar-based news agency claimed responsibility for the attack.The attack took place amid heightened security in the wake of PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the state. Modi will inaugurate the Chenani-Nashri tunnel, India’s longest highway tunnel, on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Sunday.Even as many ambushes on forces on the national highway in south Kashmir took place last year, today’s ambush was the first attack on the Army on the 14-km Parimpora-Panthachowk bypass in the past nearly four years. In 2013, Lashkar-e-Toiba militants had ambushed an Army convoy at Hyderpora, Srinagar, in which eight jawans were killed and over a dozen injured.Minutes before the ambush on the Army convoy at Bemina, panic spread in the city centre of Lal Chowk after gunshots were heard in the locality. Sources said a mentally challenged man entered a hotel in the Lal Chowk and the security men took him as a militant. However, the person was detained from the hotel by the police. As he was being taken away, locals feared that a militant had been arrested by the police and they threw stones on forces. The forces fired a few gunshots.SP (East) Sheikh Faisal said a boy tried to enter the hotel. “I think he is mentally deranged. He is with us and we are ascertaining his identity,” Faisal said.Following the incident, there were massive clashes in the city centre for at least an hour. The police also fired teargas shells to disperse the mob.Soldier killed in explosion on LoCJammu: A junior commissioned officer of the Army was killed on Saturday in an explosion near LoC in Poonch district, the police said. Police sources said the incident occurred in the Degwar sector in Poonch. “The exact cause of the explosion is being ascertained,” the sources said. —IANSMajor attacks since 2016February 20-22, 2016: Three elite para commandoes, including two Captains, two CRPF men, three militants and a civilian were killed in a gunfight in Sempora, Pampore, on the Srinagar Jammu highway. The militants took shelter in the EDI building after carrying out an attack on a CRPF convoy on the Srinagar-Jammu national highwayJune 3: Three BSF jawans were killed and seven others were injured after militants ambush their convoy on the busy Srinagar-Jammu highway at Bijbehara in south KashmirJune 25: Militants intercepted a convoy of the CRPF and killed eight security personnel and injured 22 personnelAugust 17: Two Army jawans and a policeman were killed as militants ambushed a convoy of the Army in Baramulla districtDecember 17: Three soldiers were killed and two others injured in a militant attack on an Army convoy on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Pampore in Pulwama districtFebruary 23, 2017: Three Army jawans were killed and five others, including two officers, were injured in a militant attack in south Kashmir’s Shopian district. A woman was also killed in the firing