2 cops killed in separate attacks No Sunday shelling, but villagers still flee
VIOLENCE IN KASHMIR A constable was killed in firing outside the Chraresharif shrine while another was gunned down in Soura
SRINAGAR: Two policemen were killed in different attacks in Kashmir on Sunday, officials said, and in both the incidents, the assailants snatched the weapons of the policemen before escaping.
Constable Kultar Singh was killed when militants fired upon him outside the historic Chrar-eSharif shrine in central Kashmir’s Budgam district on Sunday afternoon, police said.
Director general of state police, SP Vaid, tweeted: “Pained at the loss of a valued colleague SGCT Kultar Singh JKAP 13 Bn who attained martyrdom in an attack on J-K Police guard for protection of Chrar-e-sharif shrine.”
The shrine is one of the most revered in Kashmir. Built as a homage to Sufi saint Sheikh Noor-ud-din Noorani, the shrine is said to be around 600 years old — although the original was destroyed during a gunfight between militants and forces in 1995 and then rebuilt.
Singh’s last moments were captured in video which is now being circulated on social media, where he falls to the ground bleeding after telling the man holding the camera that he was shot twice and the two gunmen escaped after snatching his rifle. In the video locals are seen rushing for medical help after picking him up.
Police said constable Farooq Ahmed Yatoo was killed when militants fired on him in Soura locality of Srinagar.
Yatoo, a native of Chadoora area of Budgam district, was posted as a guard at the residence of separatist leader Fazal Haq Qureshi who had survived an attempt on his life in 2009.
Police did not say how many men were involved the attack on Ahmed.following his killing the police chief took to Twitter again to advise policemen.
POLICE-PUBLIC MELA
Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday inaugurated the one-day ‘Police-public Mela’ here and paid tributes to police jawans and officers killed in the line of duty. “We are observing this mela twice a year to strengthen the bond with public,” DGP Vaid said. He said the fair also aims at generating resources for welfare of wards and families of jawans and officers of police, including those killed in the line of duty. SRINAGAR : No shelling from the Pakistani side was experienced in villages near the Line of Control (LOC) in north Kashmir’s Uri on Sunday, but villagers, scared that the firing will resume, continued to move to rehabilitation camps in safer zones, officials said.
Officials manning four such camps said the number of people migrating after intermittent firing for a week had crossed 1,000. While nearly 800 people are staying in the makeshift camps, the rest are putting up with relatives in Uri. People have been moving out from Chirunda, Silikote, Mothal Hathlanga, Soura, Balkote, and Tilawari villages.
More than 200 people from these villages moved to safer locations on Sunday, according to the officials. Firing from across the border has stopped after an intense spell of shelling on Saturday morning. The shelling damaged scores of houses and forced hundreds of people, especially those living in Silikote and Tilawari, to leave their homes.
“People are still migrating because you cannot rule out that shelling and firing will not hap- pen. It has been happening for a week now and can happen again. People are scared,” said Sagar D Doifode, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Uri.
The camps have been established at the government college, two government higher secondary schools and a town hall in Uri. The district administration has directed government officials manning the four camps to remain close by even at night.
Doifode issued an advisory on Saturday, asking people to remain on the ground floor of their homes, not venture out unnecessarily and ignore rumours.
J&K rural development minister Abdul Haq Khan visited the camps on Sunday. “It is our misfortune that two countries are fighting and the people of Jammu and Kashmir are bearing the brunt... Children are suffering, their schools are shut. It is important that the two countries talk so that the people of Jammu and Kashmir can be saved from this,” Khan told local mediapersons.
Three civilians were wounded last Monday after Pakistani forces opened fire across the LOC in Uri, and since then there has been intermittent firing.