3 injured as militants open fire inside bank
A civilian and two security guards were injured on Friday after suspected militants opened fire inside a bank during an alleged robbery attempt in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, officials said.
Police said people foiled the attempt of militants to allegedly loot at Jammu and Kashmir Bank in Mohanpora, Kulgam.
“Two to three militants barged into the bank but were surrounded by people present in the bank which unnerved the gunmen. The militants then opened fire wounding a civilian and the two guards of the bank. The injured are stable,” Kulgam’s superintendent of police Harmeet Singh said.
The officer said the militants fled from the spot after the firing and that the two guards carrying 12-bore guns were not able to retaliate.
Earlier in the day, an unidentified man snatched a 12-bore gun from a guard in the Shopian branch of the same bank. The snatching incident took place just hours after suspected militants barged into the guard post of former Congress leader Mohammad Shafi Banday late on Thursday evening at Bona Bazar in the district. Police said that Banday, who is reportedly associated with the Peoples Democratic Party, was not at home and the militants managed to flee with four rifles. A police spokesperson claimed their probe “suggests complicity of proscribed terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen in the incident”.
“A search operation is underway in the nearby areas. The circumstances leading to the incident is being ascertained,” the spokesperson said on Thursday.
Officials manning the police control room (PCR) in Shopian said the guns, which were snatched were self-loading or SLRs. They said the militants managed to sneak into the premises when the policemen opened the gate for the family of one of their colleagues.
“Five policemen present in the guard room have been suspended,” an official said.
Shopian’s superintendent of police Sandeep Choudhary refused to comment.
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 Jammu and Kashmir in the past three years out of which 76 have been 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.
Underworld gangster Abu Salem has threatened to sue the makers of Ranbir Kapoorstarrer ‘Sanju’ over certain claims made against him in the movie.
A notice sent by Salem to director-producer Rajkumar Hirani and co-producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra – besides production houses Fox Star Studio, 20th Century Fox, Vinod Chopra Films and Rajkumar Hirani Films – alleged that he has been defamed in the film based on actor Sanjay Dutt’s life.
The gangster specifically objected to a scene in the movie where police are shown taking Kapoor – who essays the role of Dutt – into custody for illegal possession of a firearm.
“The scene where Ranbir Kapoor (pictured as Sanjay Dutt) gives a confessional statement about possessing arms and ammunition during communal tension in the country in 1993 amounts to defaming my client (Abu Salem)...,” the notice sent through Salem’s lawyer read.
Abu Salem has always maintained that he never supplied arms and ammunition to Sanjay Dutt. “My client neither met Sanjay Dutt nor supplied any arms or ammunition to him, as portrayed by you in your film,” the notice reiterated.
Salem has threatened to take legal action against the filmmakers if they failed to publish an apology in this regard.
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