Officer killed in Sopore ultra attack

A Jammu and Kashmir Police officer was killed and three constables were injured in a gun battle between security forces and ultras in the Sopore town of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Tuesday.

Sources told Deccan Herald that a unit of the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police came under attack from militants while laying a cordon around the Chankan area of Sopore, 52 km from here, around 11 am.

“SOG personnel had received inputs about the presence of two to three militants in a house at Chanakhan. They informed the Army’s 52 Rashtriya Rifles battalion and left for the area in a private vehicle in plain clothes,” they said.

Sopore Deputy Superintendent of Police Mushtaq Ahmad said the militants, including the notorious Muzafar Molvi, were hiding in the house of a former militant.

“As the SOG personnel came near the house, the militants opened fire, leaving four policemen injured,” he said.

The police said the militants also hurled a grenade on the SOG party, in which four personnel identified as constables Irfan Ahmed (124-SPR), Manzoor Ahmed Ganaie from (822-SPR), Zakir Ahmed Shiekh (821-SPR) and Assistant Sub-Inspector Kafeel Ahmed Mir (43-SPR) were injured.
They were admitted to Army’s 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar, where Kafeel died.

Hizb-ul-Mujahedeen has claimed responsibility for the attack. Quoting a tele-statement of the outfit’s spokesman Baleeg-Ud-Din, local news agency KNS said militants involved in the attack were safe in their hideouts.

A police spokesman said the area has been cordoned off and additional security forces rushed to prevent the militants from escaping. The latest attack was the first in 2014. Though overall violence declined in Kashmir last year, militant attacks on armed forces increased in the aftermath of the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. While 15 security personnel were killed in militant attacks in the state in 2012, the number rose to nearly 50 in 2013.

 According to unofficial data, 84 militants and 15 security personnel were killed 2012, as against 119 militants and 30 security personnel in 2011.