2 cops killed in Kashmir

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 25

Two policemen were killed and their weapons snatched in separate attacks in Kashmir today.

One policeman died after militants attacked a guard post at a revered Sufi shrine in Budgam this afternoon. The second slain policeman was guarding the residence of separatist leader Fazal Haq Qureshi in Soura locality on Srinagar’s outskirts.

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Qureshi, aligned with moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, had himself survived a lethal attack by militants in 2009.

The police said militants called cop Farooq Ahmed outside Qureshi’s house this evening and then shot him at point-blank range and fled with his rifle. 

Chairman of the People’s Political Front, a constituent of the moderate Hurriyat Conference, Qureshi was appointed interlocutor by the Hizbul Mujahideen when they announced a 14-day truce in 2000. He, along with commanders of Hizbul, held negotiations with the then Union Home Secretary Kamal Pande.

Earlier in the day, a policeman was killed in a militant attack on a police post at Kashmir’s most revered Sufi shrine of Sheikh Nooruddin Noorani at Chrar-e-Sharief, Budgam, 35 km from here. The police said militants fired at Selection Grade Constable Kultar Singh from a close range while he was deputed outside the shrine and took away his SLR.

“He succumbed to injuries in hospital,” Budgam SSP Tejinder Singh said. Kultar, a resident of Samba, was posted with 13 battalion of the J&K Armed Police. 

The shrine was burnt down in 1995 during a three-month siege after a group of militants led by Pakistani militant commander Mast Gul took shelter inside.

No militant group has owned responsibility so far.