SRINAGAR: Three CRPF men were killed and two others injured in a militant attack on a joint team of the police and paramilitary forces deployed for enforcing COVID-19 lockdown in the volatile Sopore area of Baramulla district on Saturday.Sopore Superintendent of Police Javaid Iqbal said the militants fired from AK-assault rifles on a naka party on the outskirts of Sopore connecting the town with Kupwara district late in the afternoon.
He said the militants also fired on a CRPF vehicle stationed in the area. “The police and CRPF men returned the fire,” Iqbal said but three CRPF men died and two others were injured in the attack. The deceased CRPF men were identified as head constable Rajeev Sharma, and constables Parmar Satpal and C B Bakhre. The injured CRPF men are the driver of the CRPF vehicle, Javed Ahmad, and head constable Biswajeet Ghosh.
A contingent of the police, CRPF and the army rushed to the area to cordon off the area and launch search operations to track down the militants.Asked how many militants were involved in the attack, the Sopore SP said it was “too early to say anything about their number. It is a matter of investigation.”
The Sopore attack comes a day after four militants were killed in two separate encounters in Shopian in south Kashmir and Dacchan in the mountainous Kishtwar district of the Jammu province. There has been spurt in militant activities and encounters in Jammu and Kashmir after a lockdown was enforced by authorities on March 19 to prevent spread of the coronavirus.