Terrorists kill abducted J&K cop, shoot at imam

Srinagar: A Jammu and Kashmir policeman was abducted and subsequently murdered by militants in southern Shopian district, the police said here on Friday. It said that constable Javaid Ahmad Dar was abducted at gunpoint by a group of masked men from his native village, Vehil Chatwatan in Shopian, on Thursday night.

His corpse was found lying in a corner of Pariwan village of neighbouring Kulgam district at 7.00 am on Friday. Dar had been shot in the head.

A wreath laying function was held at the district police lines in Shopian, on Friday, where senior police officers and jawans paid homage to Dar, a police spokesman said. He added that SSP (Shopian) Sandeep Choudhary led the police officers and jawans “in laying floral tributes on the mortal remains of the martyr.” Targeting Kashmiri policemen and other locals working with various security forces including the Army, mainly while on leave, has now become a routine.

On June 14, rifleman Aurangzeb, belonging to the Army’s 44 Rashtriya Rifles, was abducted by militants while going home for Id. Later, his bullet riddled corpse was found lying in Guso village of the neighbouring Pulwama district the same evening. He was a resident of Salani, a remote village in Jammu and Kashmir’s frontier district of Poonch. On June 26, three masked gunmen had barged into the houses of two SPOs Shakir Ahmed Bhat and Sajad Ahmed Ahanger in Pulwama’s Belou village. They were beaten up and then asked to resign or be ready to get killed.

Earlier this year, the J&K police had renewed its advisory to local security personnel, asking them to take precautions while on vacation.

Meanwhile, an Imam was shot and injured by unidentified gunmen in Pulwama’s Parigam village on Friday morning, the police said. It added that the cleric, Moulvi Muhammad Ashraf Thokar, was targeted by assailants after he led the Fajr (dawn) prayers at a local mosque.

Separately, suspected militants attacked the residence of former National Conference MLA Muhammad Subhan Bhat in Tral township of Pulwama with a grenade on Friday.

The police, while confirming it, said that the grenade hurled towards Mr Bhat’s house hit the roof of an adjoining house and exploded without causing any loss of life.

A police spokesman said that in a joint operation, the security forces including the Army and the J&K police, discovered an ‘old militant hideout’ and found a huge cache of arms and ammunition kept there.

“The cache includes an AK-56 rifle, 11 IEDs, and 1,200 bullets besides magazines, grenades, maps, and detonators,” said SSP (Poonch) Rajiv Pandey.

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