Four CRPF men killed in Kashmir

SRINAGAR: Police is planning to strengthen counter-insurgency systems in Sopore after the erstwhile capital of insurgency is witnessing a series of militancy-related incidents. On Wednesday, four CRPF troopers of 177 battalion were killed and another critically injured when militants ambushed a patrol party.

“Two CRPF jawans died on the spot while three others sustained bullet injuries in the attack. The injured were shifted to the hospital where two of them later succumbed to their injuries,” a police officer said.

Kashmir Police chief Farooq Ahmad said the CRPF men were on a foot patrol when the militants attacked them. Reports from the belt said that the paramilitary men were resting in an orchard near the Janwara village when the militants appeared from nowhere and lobbed a grenade that landed in between them at around 2:30 pm. Subsequently, they fired upon them as well.

By the time the paramilitary men retaliated, insurgents had fled from the spot, reports added. Reinforcements were rushed to the spot that drove the injured to the hospital where one of the two injured security men died. “Militancy is concentrating in the town,” admitted a police officer. He said the existing counter-insurgency personnel will soon be strengthened and reinforced to check the militancy-related incidents.

Off late, Sopore is exhibiting a steep rise in the militant activities that officials take as possible revival of insurgency. There have been as many as four incidents of militancy in the last two weeks. On December 18, they lobbed a grenade towards a sand-bagged bunker housing CRPF men, leaving five of them wounded.