J&K: Two CRPF men killed in militant attack

Security personnel inspect the site of the attack on the national highway, in Pampore on Monday. (Express photo by Shuaib Masoodi)

In a shoot and run attack near the Srinagar-Jammu national highway, militants on Monday killed two paramilitary personnel and wounded three. Monday’s attack was the latest in a series of similar shoot-and-run attacks carried out by militants in the past few months.

On Monday afternoon, unidentified militants fired indiscriminately on a joint patrol of the J&K Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) near Kandizal bridge in Pampore, wounding five CRPF personnel. As they were rushed to hospital, two of them succumbed to their injuries.

In an official release, the CRPF said troops of the 110 Battalion were carrying out road opening along with the police at 12.50 pm when they came under fire. “Two personnel, who were injured, succumbed and made supreme sacrifice,” it said.

The slain CRPF personnel were identified as Constables Dhrindera Tripathi and Shailendra Pratap Singh.

There has been a steep rise in the shoot-and-run attacks by militants in the Valley in the past three months.

On August 30, militants had fired on a team of the J&K Police’s Special Operations Group and tried to snatch a rifle. Three militants and a police personnel were killed in the ensuing gunfight.

On August 17, militants had fired on a joint team of the J&K Police and CRPF at Kreeri village of North Kashmir, killing two CRPF personnel and a policeman. Three militants and two Armymen were killed in the subsequent gunfight.

On August 14, militants had killed two policemen at Nowgam, on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway. On June 14, a CRPF officer was killed and two injured in a militant attack at Panthachowk on Srinagar’s outskirts.

Immediately after Monday’s attack, a joint team of the police, paramilitary and Army cordoned off the area to nab the attackers. Security in Srinagar was tightened, with barricades and intensified checking of vehicles along the highway.

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