Sopore: Militants fired indiscriminately, we didn’t retaliate, IGP says

SRINAGAR — Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Range), Vijay Kumar today said that Lashkar-e-Taiba militants who were hiding in a mosque carried out the attack at a CRPF naka party at model town Sopore that led to the death of a CRPF man and a civilian while a minor boy was rescued.

He said there was no retaliation from the security forces’ side and it was later found that militants had left behind one full magazine and another one from which 30 bullets were used in the premises of a local mosque.

The IGP, while addressing a press conference at Police Control Room (PCR) here, said that today morning when CRPF men were de-boarding from the vehicle to be part of joint Naka party at model town Sopore, two militants, hiding in the mosque, fired indiscriminately at the CRPF men in which one CRPF man died and three others were injured. “A civilian also was hit by bullets and died later,” Kumar said.

He said the attack was carried out by two Lashkar-e-Taiba militants that include a foreign militant Usman Bhai and a local militant Adil. “They fired 30 bullets as evident from the magazine recovered from the mosque premises. Another magazine was also recovered which was full,” the IGP said. He said policemen rescued a three-year-old boy who was accompanying his grandfather.

“We have observed that wherever the civilian movement is more, militants are carrying out attacks to trigger law and order issues and to trigger disturbances,” he said. The IGP Kashmir said that he deliberately didn’t shutdown Internet services in Sopore just to see how people would behave.

“The video message circulated on social media by the son and daughter of the slain man is totally baseless. They have levelled allegations under militant threat,” the IGP said.

“I want to ask them whether they were present at the site of the incident. Did they see themselves who fired? They circulated video messages blaming forces of killing their father from Srinagar, which is totally baseless,” he said.

He said if there is any eye-witness, let them come forward, “we will accordingly act.” He said there was no retaliation at all from the security forces’ side.

“The search in the area is on to nab the attackers. We have not called out the search operation,” the IGP said.

Asked how the pictures of the boy being “rescued by the police went viral” when there was no public movement at the time of the incident, he said police rescued the boy who was near the body of his grandfather.

“Going to the operation area with mobiles is wrong. I will ensure police teams going for the operation don’t carry mobiles along as that may pose threat to their lives. In 2018, many security forces personnel got killed while using their mobiles during duty hours, in standoff attacks,” the IGP said.