Srinagar: Four policemen were killed when militants detonated a remote-controlled improvised explosive device (IED) planted beneath the front of a closed shop in Sopore town, 48-km northwest of summer capital Srinagar, on Saturday.
Jaish-e-Muhammad, a UN-designated terrorist group active mainly in Jammu and Kashmir, has claimed responsibility. It said that its ‘Shaheed Afzal Guru Squad’ carried out the attack, killing five cops and injuring several others.
Guru, the Parliament attack convict hanged to death in Delhi’s Tihar jail on February 9, 2013, was a resident of Doabgah suburb of Sopore.
Responding to the JeT claim, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Munir Ahmad Khan, said that the police had to verify its authenticity. “We will have to see other aspects also and see which of the claims are true”.
Khan while speaking to reporters at the wreath-laying ceremony for the fallen cops of the Indian Reserve Police (IRP) held at the district police lines said that there was a “new hand” in Saturday’s IED blast which has made the security forces to rethink their strategy in tackling the challenge. Elaborating, he said that it was for the first time since 2015 that the militants have used an IED to target the security forces. “The IED blasts had almost stopped. It seems there is a new hand who is an expert in this (IED planting). We will have to think about how to deal with it and chalk out some new strategy. We will put our heads together and think,” he said.
The deadly blast took place on the day when Sopore which has Asia's second largest fruit mandi and is also known as the ‘Apple Town’ was shut to commemorate the massacre of 57 residents allegedly by Border Security Force (BSF). On January 1993, the BSF troops had in reprisal to a sneak attack by militants raided the centre of the town and allegedly shot civilians and torched properties. Sopore has been a hotbed of militancy and all along a stronghold of pro-Pakistani political parties and groups like Jamaat-e-Islami.
The police said that the security across the town and its neighbourhood had been beefed up ahead of one-day strike called by local traders and endorsed by an alliance of key separatist leaders called ‘Joint Resistance Leadership’. The militants detonated the remote-controlled IED when the policemen reached the scene while doing their rounds, the police officials said. The IED went off near a lane between 'Chotta Bazaar' and 'Bada Bazaar' of the town and it destroyed three shops and caused damage to three more and some other nearby structures.
The slain policemen were ASI Irshad Ahmad and Constables Ghulam Nabi, Parvaiz Ahmad and Mohammad Amin, all J&K residents. After the ceremony, their bodies were handed over to their families for last rites in their respective native villages.
Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, said that she was pained to hear about the death of cops in the IED blast. She wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.com “Pained to hear that four policeman have been killed in an IED explosion in Sopore. My deepest condolences to their families.”
Later, the Chief Minister in a statement said it was highly unfortunate to see these young cops being killed when they were in the line of duty in the town. She said, “The vortex of violence in the State needs to be broken and for that every section of society has to work shoulder to shoulder.” Mufti conveyed her heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved families and prayed for peace to the departed souls.
Her predecessor and opposition National Conference working president, Omar Abdullah, tweeted, “"Very sad news from #Sopore. May the four brave J&K police personnel killed in the line of duty today rest in peace."
This was second deadly attack carried out by JeM since one of its top commanders Noor Muhammad Tantray alias Noor Trali was killed by the security forces during an operation in Samboora, Pampore area of southern Pulwama on December 26.
On December 31, three JeM ‘fidayeen’ had launched a post-midnight attack at the camp of the CRPF’s 185 battalion at Lethpora in Pulwama. One officer and four jawans were killed before the militants could be killed in counter actions. Among the slain militants was 16-year-old Fardeen Ahmad Khanday, the son of a policeman, who was found carrying 24 grenades and a video message that asked young men in Kashmir to join the JeM.
