CM condemns Mirgund attack, visits injured cops in hospital

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 1

Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed visited Army’s 92 Base Hospital this morning and inquired about the health of the policemen injured in a militant attack on Friday, a government spokesman said.

Mufti condemned the attack and asked the doctors to provide advanced medical facilities to the injured policemen.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by General Officer Commanding, 15 Corps, Lt Gen Subrata Saha, Director General of Police K Rajendra Kumar, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir zone, SJM Gillani, Secretary to the Chief Minister MH Malik and Senior Superintendent of Police, Srinagar, Amit Kumar.

On Friday night, militants armed with pistols opened fire on the policemen from a close range. The policemen were manning a checkpoint outside Srinagar city. Three policemen, including Station House Officer of the Pattan police station Mohammad Saleem, were injured in the attack. Two other injured policemen have been identified as Dilshad Ahmad and Mushtaq Ahmad.

The incident took place when the policemen, acting on a specific input, had established a checkpoint near Mirgund village, 5 km from Srinagar peripheries, Deputy Inspector General of Police, north Kashmir, Garib Dass said.

Sources in the state police said the initial investigation had revealed that two militants linked to the newly formed Lashkar-e-Islam were involved in the shooting.

The spokesman of the state government said the injured police officer was under “round the clock observation” at the hospital while the condition of the other two other policemen was stabilising.

The shooting at Mirgund is the latest in the series of attacks in past weeks in which telecom infrastructure, former militants and separatist activists were attacked. They have been accused by the new militant group, Lashkar-e-Islam, of working for security agencies.

Immediately after the Mirgund attack, security forces intensified cordon and search operations in the area and launched domination operations of the highway, which connects north Kashmir’s three districts with Srinagar city.