Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 27: Militants this evening shot dead a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan and injured his four family members in Hajin area of Bandipora district in North Kashmir and a civilian, who was among 30 other injured in Tral grenade attack on Public Works Minister last week, succumbed to his injuries at SKIMS Soura today, taking the death toll in the attack to three.
A group of three to four militants barged into house of Rameez Ahmad Parray, a BSF constable posted at Rajasthan and presently on vacations, at Parray Hajin and thrashed and threatened him. The militants then left the house and came back again.
Second time, they fired upon the BSF constable and his brothers Mumtaz and Javed Ahmad, his father Ghulam Ahmad and aunt Habla Begum. The injured were referred to hospital but Rameez succumbed to injuries.
Senior police and security force officials reached the spot and massive hunt has been launched to nab the attackers.
A civilian identified as Mushtaq Ahmad who was grievously injured after militants had targeted motorcade of Public Works Minister Naeem Akhtar with a grenade near Bus Stand Tral last week when latter was on a visit to the area, died today. Two persons including a girl were killed on the spot in the blast while 30 persons including police and CRPF men were injured.
As per doctors, Mushtaq was put on ventilator at SKIMS but he did not respond to the treatment and finally lost his life’s battle today. Reports said that soon after people learned about the death of Mushtaq, shopkeepers downed their shutters in Tral and observed a shutdown. The deceased was working as salesman and was father of two.
In the meantime, a complete shutdown was observed amid restrictions in Sopore town of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district today against the killing of Valley’s longest surviving militant commander Qayoom Najjar in an encounter on Line of Control yesterday while infiltrating into Kashmir.
Najjar was buried last night and authorities had imposed restrictions in Sopore town to prevent any protests. All the Education institutions were closed as precautionary measure.
Shops, commercial establishments and educational institutes were closed across the Sopore today while security forces imposed restrictions in sensitive localities of the area to thwart protests. The entry and exit points of the Sopore town were sealed by the security forces while mobile internet services remained suspended. A police official said that the day passed off peacefully.
Described as most dreaded militant of recent Kashmir insurgency by police, Qayoom Najjar until 2015 was affiliated with Hizbul Mujahideeen but he broke away from the outfit and formed his own Lashkar-e-Islam which carried out series of attacks on mobile towers and killed several former militants and Hurriyat activists for their alleged links with security forces. Sources said that he had joined Jaish-e-Mohammad militant outfit.
An official said that the restrictions in Sopore will continue tomorrow and schools and colleges will also remain shut as a precautionary measure.
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