Militants loot 2 more banks in J&K within span of 2 hours

Srinagar: Gunmen believed to be militants have gone on bank robbery spree in the southern parts of Kashmir Valley. A day after a rural bank was looted at gunpoint in Kulgam district, masked men brandishing AK assault rifles and pistols on Wednesday barged into two other banks in Pulwama and decamped with over Rs 6 lakh.

The robberies, which took place within a span of two hours, and the earlier two incidents, including murder of five policemen and two bank employees on board a cash van, have sent the authorities into tizzy. Also, the bankers, feeling scared, have decided to suspend their operation unless adequate security is provided to their businesses in the militancy-infested areas.

Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir police has announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh for information on Omer Majid who, it says, led a group of three Hizbul Mujahideen militants in shooting dead in cold blood five policemen and two J&K Bank security guards in Kulgam’s Pombai village on Monday. Reports from Pulwama said that the gunmen barged into the Ellaquai Dehati Bank in the district’s Wahibugh village and looted about Rs 5 lakh. On Tuesday, the bank’s Kader, Yaripora branch in Kulgam was also raided by masked men who after taking the staff and customers hostage looted Rs 65,850 from there at gunpoint.

Within two hours of Wednesday’s incident, another group of suspected militants looted a branch of J&K Bank Nehama in Pulwama. Earlier on Tuesday night, militants snatched five self-loading rifles from policemen posted at a court complex in Shopian district, also in south Kashmir.

“They decamped with approximately Rs 1,30,000 and fled the area before the security forces could reach the spot,” said an official here.

The authorities have blamed all these incidents on separatist militants and said that their “desperate acts” suggest that they are faced with cash shortage.

The policemen have been placed under suspension for dereliction of duty as they are reported to have offered no resistance to the militants. The officials said that a massive manhunt has been launched for the militants involved in the weapon snatching, the latest in a series of such incidents reported mainly from South Kashmir where the militants’ ranks have swelled after the killing of the Hizb’s Internet-savvy commander Burhan Wani during an counterinsurgency operations on July 8 last year.

On Wednesday, the police posted notices on the walls and lampposts of Kulgam, announcing additional cash reward of Rs 5,00,000 for the information or help that may lead the security agencies to Hizb militant Omar Majeed who already carried a bounty of same amount on his head. The officials said that the 22-year-old militant who is a resident of Kulgam’s Suchi village was identified by police with the help of some locals as well as the driver of the bank cash van that came under the attack on May 1. They added that Majeed joined the outfit last year and has been active in Kulgam and its neighbourhood for quite some time during which he committed several acts of terror.

They further said that Ishfaq Palla, an over-ground worker for the Hizb, is also known to have been in the group responsible for the gory act. The police including members of its counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) along with CRPF raided several suspected militant hideouts and homes of the relatives of the accused and known sympathisers of the Hizb in various parts of South Kashmir overnight but could not find them.

Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, visited the families of slain policemen and bank employees. An official handout issued here said that the Chief Minister personally conveyed her sympathies to the families of the victims “who were killed by unknown assailants”. She said they laid down their lives while preserving public money and their sacrifices won’t be allowed to go waste. She promised to “duly look after” the bereaved families. “Every help and assistance would be provided to them by the government,” she was quoted as saying. She once again appealed the people, particularly civil society and youth, to rise against this “dangerous trend of looting of public money by spilling innocent blood, thereby giving Kashmir a terribly bad name in the civilized world”.
 
In Delhi, the Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, reviewed the overall security situation in Jammu and Kashmir for the third consecutive day at a meeting of top officials on Wednesday. Reports said that all top security officials including National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, Director Intelligence Bureau (DIB) Rajiv Jain, and Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) chief Anil Dhasmana were present in the high level meeting held at North Block. Earlier on Tuesday, the Home Minister had closeted also with Jammu and Kashmir Governor, N.N. Vohra, to discuss the situation in the restive Valley and the recent incidents along the Line of Control. Reports emanating from the Union Capital had said that Mr. Singh expressed his displeasure over ‘prolonged’ unrest in the Valley and called for effective measures to meet the challenge.