Retired SSP shot dead by militants in J&K’s Baramulla

Srinagar: In another case of targeted killing, terrorists shot dead a retired police officer inside a masjid in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Sunday.

“Terrorists fired upon Shri Mohd Shafi, a retired police officer at Gantmulla, Sheeri #Baramulla, while praying Azan in the mosque and succumbed to injuries,” said a police spokesman on X.

72-year-old Shafi, who retired as a Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) from J&K Police in 2012, had been a protected person until recently with one security officer deployed along him round-the-clock. However, reports said his security has been withdrawn recently.

The deceased officer, who had devoted himself to social service after retirement, was a muezzin (a person who proclaims the call to the daily prayer five times a day) at a local masjid in his village.

Shafi had reportedly gone to issue ‘fajr’ a pre-dawn call for prayers on Sunday morning when the attack took place. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

The latest attack is reminiscent of a spate of targeted killings in which members of the minority Pandit community, migrant workers and off-duty policemen were shot dead by militants since 2021 across the Valley.

The retired SSP’s killing comes days after a police constable was shot and injured in a targeted attack at Hamdaniya Colony in the Bemina area of Srinagar and less than two months after an off-duty police inspector Masroor Wani was killed in a similar attack.

There has been a surge in other terror-related killings as well across the Union Territory in recent months. Four soldiers were killed and two others injured when terrorists ambushed two Army vehicles on the way to the site of an anti-militancy operation in Poonch on Thursday.

A day later the families of the three civilians, who were picked by the army for questioning in connection with the Poonch attack, alleged that they were tortured and killed in custody, prompting the government to order a probe.