JAMMU/SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today termed as act of cowardice the Lashkar-e-Taiba attack on a police party at a hospital in Srinagar, even as rival parties said it was a result of a "big security lapse".
Two policemen were killed and a hardcore Pakistani terrorist freed in the daring attack on the premises of Srinagar's main hospital - SMHS.
In her message, the chief minister described the incident as "an act of cowardice which ought to be condemned by one and all".
Mehbooba conveyed her sympathies to the bereaved families of the two policemen.
The National Conference said the attack showed there was a "big security lapse", and such incidents shatter the faith of people.
"This is the biggest security lapse as the incident happened at a heavily guarded complex," NC provincial president Devender Singh Rana said.
Such an incident take place after "a long time, shatter the faith of people and show the situation in Kashmir is not good", he said.
The Congress demanded a "probe into the circumstances leading to this incident".
JKPCC chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma hoped that security forces would leave no stone unturned to track down the assailants.
Denouncing the J&K government, JKPCC president Ghulam Ahmed Mir alleged the PDP-BJP coalition had "vitiated the atmosphere of peace and harmony, and worsened the overall situation in Jammu and Kashmir".
The Centre and J&K government have no policy or roadmap to deal with the Kashmir problem or Pakistan, he said in Doda.
According to police, Mohammed Naveed Jhutt, the 22-year-old LeT militant from Pakistan who was caught in Kulgam in south Kashmir in 2014, managed to escape with the assailants.
Earlier in the day, opposition members in the Legislative Assembly demanded a detailed statement from the government on the incident.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister A R Veeri briefed the House on the basis of preliminary information and said a detailed statement would be made once all details are available.