Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur)

Army recovers body of killed Pakistani gunman

- Ravi Krishnan Khajuria letters@hindustant­imes.com

uniform as a matter of service regulation.

A shocked neighbour, Sajad Madni recalled how Pandith was a source of solace to everybody.

As reports emerged that Pandith’s guards had deserted him on seeing the size of the mob, Madni castigated the police for not providing him proper security on duty. “He was left alone. He was left to die,” Madni said.

Not much is clear on how things unfolded after he got a call on Thursday evening from office to go to Jamia Masjid.

Director general of police SP Vaid said that Pandith was checking the access control in the area following a congregati­on.

“When he came out after checking, he was surrounded by some miscreants who started manhandlin­g him and asking for his identifica­tion. Initial investigat­ion revealed that there was an altercatio­n and the officer fired to get away from the mob. He was, however, overpowere­d and killed near Bata Chowk in Nowhatta area,” Vaid said.

Some reports said that he allegedly pulled out his pistol and fired shots that injured three people. Vaid said two people have been arrested and third identified who are accused in the case.

Elder brother, Farooq Ahmad Pandith said that they got a call from an officer around midnight to check whether Pandith had reached home. “He was not home and his phone was also switched off. We then received a call from SP (north city), saying he has been seriously wounded and is at the police control room. He was actually dead,” Farooq said.

A day after Pakistan army’s Border Action Team (BAT) ambushed and killed two Indian soldiers, the Indian Army on Friday retrieved the body of a Pakistani gunman from the conflict area in Khari Karmara of the Krishna Ghati sector in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.

The border patrol of the army had killed two BAT gunmen on Thursday in the retaliator­y fire in the Chakan-da-Bagh area of KG sector along the Line of Control, the de facto border between the two nations.

While fleeing, the Pakistani gunmen carried one of the two dead bodies of their colleagues, the second one remained in the conflict area, said an intelligen­ce official. It was within the visual reach of the army and it was retrieved cautiously, he added.

The slain gunman, who could be seen wearing Pakistani army fatigues, is suspected to be a commando of the special services group (SSG) of the Pakistani army, he said. The BAT is a rogue force of heavily armed terrorists and army regulars. These teams often sneak into the Indian side of the LoC and ambush patrols.

The BAT killed naik Sandip Jadhav and sepoy Savan Mane, both from Maharashtr­a, on Thursday around 2pm.

 ?? AFP ?? Relatives of lynched police officer Mohammad Ayub Pandith mourn in Srinagar Friday.
AFP Relatives of lynched police officer Mohammad Ayub Pandith mourn in Srinagar Friday.

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