Man with axe tries to snatch CRPF jawan’s rifle but fails

SRINAGAR:AN assailant attacked a CRPF man with an axe but failed to snatch his rifle in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Thursday. Officials said the CRPF jawan, Ashok Kumar,46, was deployed outside the deputy commissioner’s office in Kulgam when a person, hiding an axe, approached him from behind.

The CRPF spokesman said Kumar is an assistant sub-inspector of 18 batallion. He belongs to Hamirpur in HP. The official said Kumar has received three cuts in his head and his condition is stated to be critical. “The attacker hit the jawan in his back and tried to snatch his rifle. But the jawan resisted bravely, forcing the assailant to run away,” said CRPF spokesman, Sanjay Sharma.

The officer also said the jawan was wounded in the attack and has been admitted in army’s 92-base hospital. Since the Centre had announced cessation of security operations against militants in Ramzan from May 17, there have been a number of weapon snatching attempts on security forces. An AK-47 and an INSAS rifles were taken away by suspected militants at Drabrun, Anantnag from personal security officer of a protected person on Friday night. A constable was killed on May 11 in a suspected militant attack on a police post set-up to guard members of the minority community in central Kashmir’s Budgam. The militants wanted to snatch weapons but a policeman, who was waylaid by militants outside his post, raised an alarm. The police have also started reviewing the security of protected persons and issued a fresh list of policemen guarding them.