Militants kill CRPF officer in Kashmir

In yet another hit-and-run attack, a Central Reserve Police Force officer was killed and a trooper injured, when militants attacked their patrol party on the outskirts of Srinagar on Wednesday evening.

A senior police officer told Deccan Herald that militants attacked a road opening party (ROP) of 29-Battalion CRPF in Nowgam Chowk on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway at around 3:30 pm in which assistant sub inspector Udit Narayan was killed while a trooper Surinder Singh was injured.

“It appears to be a hit-and-run attack by militants which have been on rise since last several months,” he said.

Sources said militants who carried the attack were in a car and fled towards Pulwama after the shootout. “They decamped with the service rifle of the slain paramilitary officer,” they said.

Eyewitnesses said the firing created panic in the locality and people were seen running away from the spot. “I was stunned to see people running helter-skelter. When I got up from a shop I saw two bodies lying on the ground in a pool of blood,” Wahid Ahmad, an eyewitness, told Deccan Herald.

Reports said huge contingents of the police, CRPF and the army were rushed to the spot to carry out searches. “Efforts are on to nab the assailants, who we believe would not have gone far as of now,” a police official said.

Meanwhile, indigenous militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen has claimed the responsibility for the attack. A local news gathering agency KNS quoting Hizb spokesman Bleeg-ud-Din’s tele-statement said its cadres carried out the attack.

There has been a surge in hit-and-run militant attacks in the Valley since this year. On December 2, militants attacked a police party in central Kashmir's Chadoora town killing an officer and injuring three constables.

On November 7, militants had shot dead two CRPF personnel in Awantipora town of South Kashmir.