Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 8: Militants this afternoon targeted two security forces personnel in a Sopore village in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district killing one of them while the other one was critically injured.
Police spokesman said here that militants shot dead a Special Police Officer and an Army man in village Brath Kalan from very close range at around 4 p.m. today.
Police identified the dead SPO as Riyazul Hassan Mir, 22, son of Haji Ghulam Hassan Mir and injured Army personnel as Tariq Ahmad Mir, 26, son of Mohammad Ramzan Mir of 5 JAK Rifles, both of them residents of village Brath Kalan, Sopore.
Police said both these security personnel had come home for leave and were targeted by two pistol borne militants in the outskirts of the village. Body of the SPO was thrown into an irrigational canal while Army personnel was found critically injured on the bank of it. He was referred to Srinagar for treatment where his condition is stated to be critical.
Police said that a massive hunt has been launched in the area to trace out the militants responsible for the attack on two security force personnel.
People of the village protested against the killing of the two security men of the village. They demanded that the killers be brought to justice.
This is the second strike in Sopore in past two weeks by militants. Last week heavily armed group of around 16 militants with majority of them foreigners’ targeted Rs 50 crore Flood Works and Conservation of Wullar lake project in Nigli near Sopore. The workers of the project were threatened and asked to stop work on the project which Pakistan thinks is a violation of the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 between India and Pakistan.
Around 300 workers who were working on the project fled away following militant threats resulting in stopping of work on the prestigious project aimed at increasing the water level of the Wullar lake that is shrinking at an alarming rate. Security forces had launched massive operation to trace out the militants responsible for targeting the Wular lake project but so far no one among them was traced out.
Sopore is considered to be hot bed of militancy. Security agencies believed that the support of the people and its strategic location makes Sopore comparatively safer for militants to survive and operate despite large number of security presence in the area.
Meanwhile, Kupwara police recovered arms ammunition from a Nallah in the frontier district of Kupwara today.
Police said that on specific information Kupwara police recovered an AK-56 with one AK-56 magazine and 30 rounds of AK ammunition concealed near the bank of Kawari Nallah.
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