Man with axe attacks CRPF jawan in Kashmir in attempt to steal rife

A man armed with an axe attacked a CRPF soldier but failed to steal his rifle in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Wednesday.

Officials said the CRPF jawan, Ashok Kumar of the 18th Batallion, was deployed outside the deputy commissioner’s office in Kulgam when a person, with an axe hidden with him, approached him from behind.

“The attacker hit the jawan in his back and tried to snatch his rifle. But the jawan resisted bravely forcing the assailant to run away,” said CRPF spokesman, Sanjay Sharma.

Kumar was wounded in the attack and has been admitted in army’s 92-base hospital. “He is out of danger,” Sharma said.

He said that the CRPF personnel deployed in the area did not fire owing to a large number of passersby outside the administrative office.

The incident is among several that have happened since the Centre announced cessation of security operations against militants in Ramzan from May 17.

At least eight weapons have been snatched by suspected militants or gone missing from police custody this month.

The Jammu and Kashmir police have blamed the overuse of smartphones by its personnel for the rise in number of incidents of weapon-snatching across the strife-torn state and banned their use during duty hours, especially by sentries.

A constable was killed on May 11 in a suspected militant attack on a police post set up to guard members of the minority community in central Kashmir’s Budgam. The militants wanted to snatch weapons but a policeman, who was waylaid by militants outside his post, raised an alarm.

Government data presented in the state assembly in January this year shows that 149 guns and 102 tear gas shells and grenades were looted by militants in Jammu and Kashmir in the past three years out of which 76 weapons were recovered.

Of the 149 rifles and pistols, 66 were snatched in 2016 mostly from south Kashmir after the death of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani. The incidents have now increased in central and north Kashmir.

Police have also started reviewing the security of all protected persons and issued a fresh list of policemen guarding them after an increase in cases of weapon-snatching.