SRINAGAR: Militants snatched five rifles from policemen guarding a Doordarshan Television tower in South Kashmir on Sunday night.
A police official said militants wearing combat dresses attacked a police post at a Low Power Transmitter station of Doordarshan in Dalvash village, Dooru in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Sunday night.
He said the militants after barging into the police post overpowered the three policemen, who were deployed there to guard the TV tower.
“Before fleeing from the spot, militants snatched three SLR rifles, one carbine rifle and one INSAS rifle from the policemen,” the official said.
Sources said militants also took away 750 rounds of ammunition with them.
After the militant attack, police, paramilitary and army men reached the spot and launched a manhunt to track down the militants responsible for the weapon-snatching.
The security forces conducted search operation in the area. However, no arrests were reported and neither any weapon recovered.
“We have launched a massive manhunt to track the militants, who attacked the police post and snatched five rifles and ammunition,” a senior police official said.
He said the policemen from whom weapons were snatched are being questioned.
The official said another weapon snatching bid of militants was foiled by policemen by in Sirnoo village of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district last night.
According to him, militants attacked police picket guarding Kashmiri Pandit families in Sirnoo village last evening to snatch weapons from the cops.
“The policemen, however, fired towards the militants and foiled their attempt to storm the picket and loot the weapons,” he said.
Earlier, on October 3 militants had snatched five rifles from policemen guarding Kashmiri Pandit families in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
In the month of September, militants had snatched at least 15 service rifles from policemen in at least five weapon-snatching incidents.
All the weapon snatching incidents have taken place in South Kashmir, which is at the epicenter of over three month long unrest in the Valley.
At least 91 people have been killed and over 13000 injured in the ongoing unrest in the Valley triggered by killing of 21-year-old Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.