Terrorists killed 6 people in their successful attempt to loot a bank in Kashmir. Photo for representation.
Five policemen and two guards from a private company were killed when militants mounted a deadly attack on a cash van of Jammu and Kashmir Bank in southern Kulgam district on Monday.
Sources said a group of five to six heavily armed militants, camouflaged in army uniforms, had laid a naka (trap) near Pombai village of Kulgam, 78 kms from here, and as soon the cash van reached the spot at around 3.25 pm, it was attacked. “Before the policemen could understand the situation, the militants started indiscriminate firing on the van, resulting in death of five cops and two private security guards,” they said.
The militants, they said, fled with four INSAS rifle and one AK 47 rifle of the slain cops. “As the militants had planned to loot weapons and money, they found the cash van as easy target. The militants took away Rs 50 lakh from inside the van,” sources added.
Officials said the van was dispensing cash to local branches and was returning to a bank in Pombai, when it was attacked. Deputy Inspector General of Police (South Kashmir range) SP Pani said that it was a group of about half a dozen militants, being led by Hizbul commander Omar, which attacked the police.
Indigenous militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujhadeen claimed the responsibility of the deadly attack. A local news agency CNS quoting Burhanuddin, spokesperson of Hizbul said the attack was carried out by “a special squad” of the outfit who besides “inflicting casualties also snatched four service rifles from the policemen. In the last three-years south Kashmir districts of Kulgam, Anantnag, Shopian and Pulwama have become the hub of militant activities, where large armed groups roam the countryside unchecked.
Policemen have been targeted frequently and robbed of their weapons while Kashmir has witnessed a surge in bank looting cases ever since demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 last year.
But it is for the first time that the bank employees or the policemen escorting them in a cash van have been targeted. The attack took place on a day Pakistan army, in an act of extreme provocation, mutilated the bodies of two Indian soldiers killed in firing at the Line of Control in Poonch district.
Commenting on the spiralling violence in the state, former Chief Minister and Opposition National Conference leaer Omar Abdullah tweeted: “Terrible 24 hours in J&K. 2 soldiers killed & mutilated near the LoC. 5 policemen & 2 bank employees shot in a robbery bid in South Kashmir (sic).”
On April 27, three soldiers, including a young captain, and two unidentified fidayeen (suicide) militants were killed while five troopers were injured, when ultras launched a pre-dawn attack on an army installation in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.