Aamir Wani
Anantnag: Two CRPF soldiers were killed and three others, one of them an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), were injured in a deadly militant attack on Monday afternoon along National Highway on the outskirts of Srinagar city.
The slain CRPF men have been identified as Constables Shailendra Singh and Dhirendra Tripathi. The injured men were identified by police sources as ASI Gorakh Nath, Head Constable Mukund Singh, and Constable D Kipgen
“All five of them belong to 110 Bn of the CRPF,” a police source told Kashmir Reader.
The attack was carried out by bike-riding militants at about 1:00 PM. Though initially there was confusion about the police jurisdiction of the place, it was later established that the area falls within the limits of police district Srinagar — police station Nowgam to be precise.
“Two militants, riding a bike, fired indiscriminately at a party of CRPF men from 110 Bn, leaving five men injured, two of them critically,” a senior police officer from the area said.
He said that the injured were immediately rushed to army’s 92 Base hospital in Badami Bagh area of Srinagar.
“Two of the injured succumbed soon after they reached the hospital. The rest of them are under treatment and stable,” the officer said. “The militants, meanwhile, managed to escape,” he added.
He said that a search operation was launched to try and nab the attackers but it met with no success.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, said that the militants were from Lashkar-e-Toiba and have been identified. “One Saifullah from Pakistan and a local militant were behind the attack. A hunt to eliminate them has been launched,” the IGP said.
Despite heavy presence of government forces along the length of the Anantnag-Srinagar stretch of NH-44, the road has been turning out to be a vulnerable one for government forces.
Dozens of bunkers have come up since last year’s “Pulwama attack” along this stretch of the NH-44 but the attacks have continued. Recently, a similar kind of attack in the nearby Nowgam area had left two policemen dead.
Kumar said that the highway is an easy place for militants to carry out such attacks given the presence of hundreds of civilians.
“The highway is a busy place where hundreds of civilians travel every day. If we retaliate and fire indiscriminately like militants do, there might be civilian casualties as well,” Kumar was quoted by a local news agency as saying.
Meanwhile, there was a brief exchange of fire between militants and government forces during a cordon and search operation in Lalgam area of Tral, here in Pulwama district.
“Initially, contact was established but there has been no firing since. We believe the militants might have managed to escape. The operation continues, though,” a senior police officer from Tral said.
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