Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Oct 18: Militants today shot dead a Special Police Officer (SPO) and slit the throat of a teacher in South Kashmir.
SPO Haleem Gujjar son of Fateh Gujjar of Gutro in Tral area was fired upon by militants inside his house. He was critically injured and shifted to nearby hospital where doctors declared him as brought dead.
The SPO was posted at Aripal Tral with Special Operations Group (SOG) and had gone home. Sources said that two militants barged into his house and entered his room and fired at him indiscriminately. They left him in a pool of blood and fled from the spot.
Soon after the incident, security forces launched the hunt to nab the militants responsible for the killing of the SPO.
A Police spokesman said that an SPO was killed by militants in South Kashmir’s Tral township this evening. “A Special Police Officer (SPO) identified as Abdul Haleem Kohli son of Fateh Kohli , was at home , when terrorists opened fire on him at Gutroo Village in Tral and killed him on the spot. The martyred policeman was a resident of Gutroo Village in Tral and was currently posted at Aripal tehsil in Tral sub division. Investigation is on in the case and a manhunt has been launched to nab the assailants”, the spokesman added.
And a teacher was found dead with slit throat in Wathoo village of Shopian in South Kashmir today.
Aijaz Ahmad Lone, a teacher by profession, was found dead under mysterious conditions near Lar Maadan Stadium in Wathoo area today morning. He was a resident of Gatipora village of the district.
Sources said that last evening he got a phone call from the militants as he was also working as OGW with Hizbul Mujahideen for last few years. He was severely beaten up by the militants and then his throat was slit.
It may be mentioned here that three militants of Hizbul Mujahideen including district commander Zahid Malik who were killed in a fierce encounter in Shopian district of South Kashmir last week were hiding in his house.
As a joint team of 43 RR, SOG and CRPF launched a cordon-and-search at village Gatipora in Kellar area of Shopian on October 9, the militants hiding in the house of Aijaz fled and took shelter adjacent house belonging to his father.
All the three militants were later killed by security forces and his father’s house was damaged in the encounter.
In the meantime, Special Director General of CRPF, S N Srivastava, said that security forces have achieved major successes this year against the militants.
“See, the CRPF has made sound arrangements for carrying forward operations and we have formed strategy plan on how to fight militancy and for the safety of our jawans. We are working accordingly (as per plan) and we are happy that we have been successful in our plan to a large extent and we have achieved lot of successes in our operations”, he said.
The Special DG said that his visit to South Kashmir was aimed at greeting the jawans on the eve of Diwali. “Basically, the aim of the visit was to greet our jawans and officers who are serving nation on Diwali. I am also one among them and it is important as an officer for me to greet them on Diwali”, he said.
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