Quit, Hizb warns 24 J&K policemen

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 22

A day after abducting and killing three cops, Hizbul militants on Saturday issued threats specifically to 24 policemen, including two officers posted in the militancy-infested South Kashmir, asking them to quit. 

 The Hizbul Mujahideen released pictures of these personnel on the social media (authenticity yet to be verified). It asked these policemen to announce their resignation via a videotape, failing which they would be killed. 

Posting the picture of a particular police officer, the militants threatened: “There is no warning for you, will send you to hell.” In another post, the Hizb asked women constables and SPOs to resign too.

The Jammu and Kashmir Police see this as part of “psychological warfare” aimed at demoralising  the force. 

The targeted killing of three policemen in Shopian district on Friday morning had triggered a series of resignations by Special Police Officers (SPOs) who made the announcement via mosques or videotapes. However, the Union Home Ministry dismissed such reports as  mere “propaganda” by militants. 

The militants had swooped on Kaprin and Batagund villages in Shopian and abducted three cops — Nisar Ahmad Dhobi (38), Firdous Ahmad (28) and Kulwant Singh (35). A relative of a cop was abducted too, but was set free later. 

This year, 37 policemen, including eight SPOs, have been killed by militants so far — the highest police fatalities in 12 years.

Shopian killings: FIR names 24 ultras

Srinagar: The J&K Police have named 24 local militants, including Syed Naveed, who was once a cop, while filing an FIR on the Shopian killings. 

“The militants (named in the FIR), carrying arms and ammunition at the behest of Riyaz Naikoo, a Hizbul Mujahideen commander, entered the houses of the policemen at Batagund and Kaprin and kidnapped them with the intent to kill. It was done to intimidate the cops and their families,” the FIR reads. TNS