4 cops shot, hours after Hizb commander killed

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 29

Hours after the security forces eliminated two top Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, Hizb and Jaish militants killed four policemen in neighbouring Shopian.

The militants decamped with weapons of the slain cops, who were all security guards of Shopian Deputy Superintendent of Police (Operations) Ashiq Tak. The DSP's picture with his four guards had gone viral on the social media after it appeared in the New York Times on August 1. 

The officer had trailed Hizb commander Sameer Tiger, who was killed on April 30 this year. The latter had allegedly killed his uncle Bashir Ahmad in Pulwama.

The slain policemen — Constables Ishfaq Ahmad Mir, Javed Ahmad Bhat and Muhammad Iqbal Mir and Special Police Officer (SPO) Adil Manzoor Bhat — had stopped at an auto workshop on the outskirts of Shopian for to get their official vehicle repaired. 

In Tral, militants abducted the son of a policeman late in the evening.

Policemen killed in 2018

January 6: Four policemen, including an officer, were killed in an improvised explosive device blast in Sopore

February 6: Two policemen were killed in an attack by militants inside the premier city hospital in which a top Pakistani Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Naveed managed to escape

March 21: Two policemen were killed in a gunfight with militants in Kupwara

June 12: Two policemen killed in a militant attack in Pulwama

June 14: Senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari and two policemen killed in a militant attack in Srinagar

July 5: Militants abducted and later killed policeman Javed Ahmad Dar in Shopian.

July 21: Policeman Mohammed Saleem was abducted and later killed in south Kashmir’s Kulgam.

August 12: A policeman was killed in a gunfight with militants at Batamaloo Srinagar

August 22: Militants killed three policemen on Eid in Shopian and Pulwama districts.