SRINAGAR: Two CRPF personnel, including a sub-inspector, were killed and two others injured, one of them critically, in a militant attack at Lawaypora on the outskirts of Srinagar on Thursday. Police blamed Lashkar-e-Toiba for the attack.
CRPF spokesman Om Prakash Tiwari said the militants fired on the vehicle of a road opening party of CRPF’s 73 BN at around 3.45 pm. Militants fired indiscriminately from assault rifles on the CRPF vehicle, causing injuries to four paramilitary jawans. The injured jawans were evacuated to the army hospital at Badamibagh Cantonment in Srinagar, where two of the critically injured jawans succumbed to injuries.
The deceased were identified as Sub Inspector Manga Ram Dev Barman, a resident of Tripura, and driver Constable Ashok Kumar, resident of Chandigarh. The CRPF official said the condition of injured jawan Jagan Nath is critical while another injured jawan Nazim Ali is stable.
Immediately after the militant attack, police and CRPF men rushed to the area and launched a search operation to nab the attackers, whose number and identity are being ascertained. A police official said preliminary investigations indicated involvement of Lashkar militants. “Investigation is vigorously going on to establish the full circumstances of the militant attack,” he said.
This is the fourth militant attack in Srinagar in the last two months. On February 17, militants shot at and injured Akash Mehra, son of famous Krishna Dhaba owner Ramesh Kumar Mehra. Akash succumbed to injuries after 11 days. On February 19, militants in broad-day light killed two policemen in Baghat area of uptown Srinagar. On March 5, militants lobbed a grenade towards a police post at Fateh Kadal area in downtown Srinagar without causing any damage.