Woman SPO shot dead outside her house in Shopian

SRINAGAR: Militants on Saturday killed a woman special police officer (SPO) in south Kashmir’s Shopian district.

SPO Khushboo Jan was shot from close range at her home in Vehil village of Shopian district, police said.

“Militants fired at Khushboo Jan at her village in Vehil. She sustained critical injuries and was evacuated to hospital where she succumbed. Police have registered a case and initiated investigation in the matter,” a police spokesman said.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah has condemned the killing of the woman SPO.

“A lady special police officer (SPO) was shot & killed outside her home in South Kashmir earlier today. I condemn this act of terror & extend my condolences to her family & all her J&K police colleagues,” he wrote on social networking site Twitter.

Another former CM and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti also termed the killing as gruesome and an act of terror. “I strongly condemn this brutal act of terror. My condolences to the family. This vicious cycle of death and destruction seems to have no end,” she wrote on Twitter.

Though militants have killed many policemen in the last two years, this is the first killing of a woman SPO in any part of Valley in the recent past. Last year, 44 policemen, including SPOS, were killed in different attacks or incidents in the Valley. The number of policemen killed so far this year is six. Terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen’s operational commander Riyaz Naikoo had earlier warned people working with police to quit their jobs.