Police officer shot dead by militants in Srinagar

A police officer was shot dead by militants in the old city Khanyar area of Srinagar on Sunday.

Police said that Arshid Ahmad, a probationary sub-inspector, was fired upon by a pistol-borne militant from point-blank range in Khanyar at around 1:35 pm.

Video of the shootout has emerged on social media, showing a militant with a pistol opening fire on the police officer in broad daylight barely a few meters away from Khanayar police station. After firing, the militant is seen fleeing from the spot.

The injured officer was immediately shifted to tertiary-care SKIMS hospital in Soura, where he succumbed to his injuries, reports said. Immediately after the attack, the area was cordoned off by the police and security forces and a hunt was launched to nab the attackers.

On June 22, militants had shot dead an inspector of J&K police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Kanipora area of Nowgam on the outskirts of Srinagar city in similar circumstances. Prior to that two policemen were killed after militants fired upon them indiscriminately in the uptown Barzulla area of Srinagar on February 19.

According to official figures, nearly 1,700 policemen, including 508 personal security officers (PSOs) protecting VIPs, have been killed in the line of duty in Jammu and Kashmir since the beginning of the insurgency in the union territory in 1989.

The J&K police have lost men from low-ranks to DIG-level officers during the last more than three decades. In 2004 a deputy inspector general of police was shot dead outside a masjid in Srinagar.

Militant organisations like Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba have several times released threats on social media warning policemen and other security personnel to resign or face dire consequences.

“Local policemen are unsung heroes as it is their efficiency that a large number of militants and top commanders have been eliminated. And whenever terrorists face losses at the hands of security forces, they try to find soft targets and sometimes off-duty policemen become easy targets for them,” a senior police officer said.

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