Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 7

Amid heightened tension between India and Pakistan, the Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots are conducting mock drills during night for the past one week which have created a panic among the residents.Several IAF jets depart from the Srinagar airbase and conduct a drill late at night. The noise has been creating panic among the residents. “I could not sleep the whole night after I got up to the noise of jets hovering in the sky at 11:30 pm,” a resident of Bagh-e-Mehtab, Tasim Hussain told The Tribune. “It was very scary given the situation on the LoC and on TV channels,” Hussain said.Similar views were expressed by Natipora resident Abdul Rashid, who came out of his home to see the aircraft. “I could see jets hovering over but it gave the worrisome feeling of war,” Rashid said.After the fidayeen attack on Army’s 12th Brigade in frontier Uri town in which 19 soldiers were killed and 17 others wounded, India and Pakistan have intensified activities along the LoC.Defence spokesperson in Srinagar Col Rajesh Kalia said, “It is a routine exercise.”