Four AK-47 rifles looted from MLC’s residence in Srinagar

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, December 30

A suspected militant on Sunday looted four assault rifles from a policeman posted at the official residence of a legislative councillor in the heart of the city.

The police launched an immediate investigation after a policeman, deputed as guard at the official residence of Member of Legislative Council Muzafar Parray, reported that a man looted the rifles at pistol-point.

A senior police officer said the policeman on guard duty at Parray’s residence reported that a man pointed a weapon at him and looted the four assault AK-47 rifles in the afternoon. “We are questioning the policeman and verifying and corroborating his version,” said DIG, Central Kashmir, VK Birdi. Parray, who was in Jammu, is a senior member of the Congress. It was not immediately clear if the unidentified man, who escaped with the looted rifles, was acting alone or had accomplices with him.

The official said the missing weapons were service rifles of the four policemen assigned to guard Parray. The rifles were looted from Parray’s official residence at J-73 in the high-security Jawahar Nagar area, where official residences of many legislators and councillors are located.

It is the second such incident of weapon-snatching in the Jawahar Nagar area in recent months. In September, a special police officer, Adil Bashir, escaped with seven rifles and a pistol from the official residence of the then legislator Aijaz Mir.

The deserter had later surfaced in pictures on social media along with the rifles, establishing the militant link to his loot. He was seen alongside militants active in Shopian district.

In recent years, the militants have resorted to snatching and looting of weapons from policemen as the increased vigil and upgraded security along the Line of Control has starved Kashmir’s insurgency of a free flow of weapons.

The tactic of snatching weapons, however, has proven successful for militants to arm a steady trickle of new recruits and also highlights the growing self-reliance and localisation of militancy.

In the three years from 2015 to 2017, 159 weapons have been looted from installations and personnel of security forces. As many as 76 weapons were recovered.

Minor dies after shell explodes in Pulwama

A minor boy died after an unexploded shell went off in Pulwama district. Arif Ahmad (10), a resident of the Laroo area of Pulwama in south Kashmir, was critically injured after a shell he was playing with went off on Saturday, an official said. He said Ahmad was rearing a flock of sheep in an orchard when he found the unexploded shell and picked it up. The shell exploded in his hand, injuring him critically, the official said.  He said the boy was rushed to the District Hospital in Pulwama and was referred to the SMHS Hospital. However, he succumbed to injuries, the official said. PTI