Arms snatching bid foiled at J&K AG’S house

THE MILITANTS LEFT AFTER RANSACKING THE GUARDROOM, AND AT THE TIME OF INCIDENT, THE AG WAS IN SRINAGAR AT HIS OFFICIAL RESIDENCE

SRINAGAR : Militants barged into Jammu and Kashmir’s advocate general’s (AG) house in south Kashmir on Thursday night with an intention to loot weapons of policemen guarding the family.

The militants, however, could not trace the weapons and left after ransacking the guardroom. At the time of incident, the AG was in Srinagar at his official residence.

Locals said the militants believed to be four to seven in number, entered the native house of AG Jahangir Iqbal Gania at Mattan in Anantnag. After entering, they searched for the cops and their weapons.

The militants ransacked the guardroom while searching for the weapons of four policemen. They, however, couldn’t locate them.

The militants also searched the rooms of the house of AG; where his family is staying, but could not locate the weapons there as well. After completing the search, militants left the locality.

A senior police officer said the policemen guarding the house foiled their attempt to snatch the rifles from the guards posted at the ancestral house of the AG.

Since the unilateral ceasefire was announced, militants have made several attempts to snatch the weapons from the policemen posted at different places of the Valley.

However, the guards foiled most of their attempts. In the past few days, a CRPF officer sustained injuries when he was attacked with an axe by an unidentified person in Kulgam with an intention to snatch his rifle.

Government data presented in the state assembly in January this year shows that 149 guns and 102 tear gas shells and grenades were looted by militants in J&K in the past three years, out of which 76 were recovered.

Of the 149 rifles and pistols, 66 were snatched in 2016 mostly in south Kashmir after the death of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani.

In the recent past, there have been five incidents, three of which have been successful, of weapon snatching or attempts to steal them from police posts guarding politicians, minority community, hotels and educational institutions across Kashmir in May.

The police lost six weapons in these incidents and the photographs of five of them were circulated on social media indicating they fell into militants.