Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): Two Lashkar-e-Taiba militants, who were hiding in a mosque, carried out an attack on a CRPF party at model town Sopore, which led to the death of one force personnel and a civilian today, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said while rejecting allegations by the deceased local man’s family that he was killed in CRPF firing.
The IGP has appealed to all the heads of local masjids across Kashmir to ensure that no mosque is used by militants in carrying out their acts. Addressing a press conference at Police Control Room (PCR) Srinagar, he said that when CRPF stepped out of their vehicles to be part of joint naka party at model town Sopore, two militants hiding in the nearby mosque fired indiscriminately at the security personnel in which one jawan died and three others were injured. “A civilian also was hit by bullets and died later,” Kumar said.
He said that the attack was carried out by two Lashkar-e-Taiba militants that include a foreign militant Usmban Bhai and a local militant Adil. “They fired 30 bullets as evident from the magazine recovered from the mosque premises. Another magazine was also recovered which was full,” the IGP said. He said policemen rescued a three-year-old boy who was accompanying his grandfather (the deceased civilian).
“We have observed that wherever the civilian movement is more, militants are carrying out attacks to trigger law and order issues and to trigger disturbances,” he said. The IGP Kashmir said that he deliberately didn’t close the internet services in Sopore just to see how people would behave.
“The video message circulated on social media by the son and daughter of the slain man is totally baseless. They have levelled allegations under militant threat,” the IGP said. “I want to ask them whether they were present at the site of the incident. Did they see themselves who fired? They circulated video messages blaming forces of killing their father from Srinagar, which is totally baseless.”
He said if there is any eye-witness, let them come forward, police will act. He said there was no retaliation at all from the security forces side. “The search in the area is on to nab the attackers. We have not called out the search operation yet,” the IGP said.
Asked how the pictures of the boy being “rescued by the police went viral” when there was no public movement at the time of the incident, he said police rescued the boy who was near the body of his grandfather after the incident.
“Going to the operation area with mobiles is wrong. I will ensure police teams going for the operation don’t carry mobiles along as that may pose a threat to their lives. In 2018, many security forces personnel got killed while using their mobiles during duty hours, in various attacks,” he said, adding that “when they used mobiles during evening hours, militants took advantage of it and attacked them resulting in their killing.”
-ARK
