Pheran-clad shooter kills two cops in busy Srinagar marketplace
A lone militant on Friday afternoon appeared in a busy marketplace in Srinagar, walked a few steps, took out an AK assault rifle concealed under his pheran (the traditional outfit) and fired at two policemen standing by the roadside.
CCTV footage of the shooting, which went viral soon, shows the cops falling on the ground and the assailant running away amid commotion caused by the terror act.
The injured policemen were rushed to hospital but both of them succumbed to their injuries soon, the police and hospital sources said.
Inspector general of police (Kashmir range), Vijay Kumar, said, “The terrorist fired indiscriminately upon the police personnel who were unarmed with the automatic weapon concealed under his pheran.”
He identified the slain cops as Mohammad Yusuf and Suhail Ahmad.
“They had received critical gunshot injuries,” he said.
He, however, also said that preliminary investigation on the basis of CCTV footage and other evidence indicate the involvement of two militants in the attack.
He claimed that one of them was a local and the other a foreigner affiliated with proscribed outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and said that a manhunt has been launched to arrest them.
Earlier during the day, a Special Police Officer (SPO) Altaf Ahmed was killed and a selectiongrade constable Manzoor Ahmed were critically injured in a gunfight with militants in Beeru area of Budgam district.
The police sources said that the gunfight broke out during a cordon-andsearch operation launched by a joint team of J&K police, the Army’s 53 Rashtriya Rifles and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)'s 79th
Battalion in Beeru's Zanigam hamlet to flush out militants. However, after the initial exchange of fire the militants managed to break the security dragnet and escape.
Mr Kumar said that the escaping militant or militants’ ‘blood trace’ has been followed to another village some two kilometres away from the encounter site. The area has been cordoned off and a search operation launched, he added.
In another clash, three militants were killed in southern Shopian district overnight, the police said, adding that the slain were associated with Al-Badr outfit.
They have been identified as Suhail Sheikh alias Azeem, Shahid Ahmad Dar alias Furqaan and Muddasir Ahmad Wagay, all local Kashmiris.
Officials said that the operation against the militants in Shopian’s Badigam village was launched jointly by the J&K Police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG), the Army’s 44 Rashtriya Rifles and 178th Battalion of the CRPF on Thursday evening and that, after the presence of militants was ascertained, repeated announcements were made asking them to lay down their weapons and surrender.
“Instead of accepting the offer, the hiding terrorists fired indiscriminately and also managed to keep some of the inmates as hostages.
Due to darkness the operation was suspended for the night.
However, the cordon remained intact throughout the night. With the first light on Friday, the joint party was tactfully able to evacuate the hostages.
Repeated announcements were again made to the terrorists to surrender, but they fired indiscriminately on security forces which retaliated, resulting in elimination of all the three,” a police statement said.
It added arms and ammunition including two AK rifles with five magazines and 96 rounds of ammunition, one pistol and other incriminating materials were recovered from the site of encounter.