Cop shot dead by militants in J&K’s Kulgam district 9 CAPF units sent to worst-hit Maha

■ Centre withdraws 10 CAPF companies from J&K duties

A Jammu and Kashmir policeman was shot dead by gunmen in southern Kulgam district on Saturday. The officials blamed the murder on separatist militants and said that a search operation is underway in the area to capture the assailants alive or dead.

According to the police, militants targeted the police head constable identified as Muhammad Amin Bagat while he was discharging his duty at a makeshift checkpoint at the main square of Frisal, Yaripora area of Kulgam. “The terrorists first hurled a hand grenade towards the joint naka party of the J&K police and CRPF and then fired their automatic weapons, critically injuring the head constable. He succumbed while being carried to hospital,” a police spokesman here said.

The police said the cop, a resident of neighbouring Pulwama district, had sustained “grievous gunshot injuries” in the terror attack.

A medical official, Dr Abdul Gani, said that policeman had bullet injury on head and was declared brought dead on arrival.

Meanwhile, the officials said that the J&K police and security forces together busted a “terror module” linked to proscribed outfit Lashkar-eTayyaba (LeT) by arresting five of its “associates” in central district of Budgam.

“On a credible input, Budgam police along with the Army’s 53 Rashtriya Rifles and 153rd Battalion of the CRPF arrested a terrorist associate identified as Zahoor Wani from village Arizal in the jurisdiction of Budgam’s Khansahab police station. On his disclosure a terrorist hideout was busted. Incriminating material including arms and ammunition was recovered from the hideout, a statement issued by the police here on Saturday said.

The four arrested persons have been identified as Younis Mir, Aslam Sheikh, Parvaiz Sheikh and Rehman Lone- all residents of Khansahib.

New Delhi, May 16: The Union Home Ministry on Saturday ordered withdrawal of 10 CAPF companies from Jammu and Kashmir and sent nine such units to Maharashtra, officials said.

They said the 10 units comprising over 1,000 personnel are being withdrawn from Jammu region of the Union Territory.

No units of the paramilitary forces deployed in Kashmir have been touched, the officials said.

Among these 10, three companies belong to the CISF and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police each, while two each are from the CRPF and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), as per an order issued by the Union home ministry.

These forces work under the ministry's command for rendering a variety of internal security duties and border guarding.

The home ministry, meanwhile, also released nine companies — four from the Rapid Action Force, two from the Central Reserve Police Force and three from the Central Industrial Security Force — for deployment in Maharashtra.

While five companies for Maharashtra are drawn from the ten units being withdrawn from Jammu, the rest four have been released from the Mumbai-based unit of the RAF, CRPF's specialised counter-riots unit, they said.

The state had sought 20 Central Armed Police Forces companies recently to relieve its police personnel who, it said, were overworked during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown.

Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh had said state police have been working “day in and day out” to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the state.

Many state police personnel have tested positive for coronavirus and need time to rest and recuperate, he had said.

“The festival of Eid is also around the corner and proper law and order has to be ensured. The police should get some rest for that. Hence, we have requested the Centre to deploy 20 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), that is 2,000 personnel,” the minister had said in a video message on Twitter.

Thirty-two companies of the Central Reserve Police Force's (CRPF) have already been deployed in Maharashtra and are working in tandem with the state police, according to an official statement of the state government.

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