Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 18: Three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were martyred and two others injured when militants attacked a check point in Sopore area of North Kashmir today.
The militants attacked a joint check point of CRPF and Police at Noorbagh near Ahad Bab crossing in North Kashmir’s Sopore area this evening.
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Sources said that a single militant wearing Kashmir Pheran appeared near the bullet proof CRPF bunker vehicle and fired inside it. They said that the door of the bunker was open and five persons were injured in the attack. The other militants were giving cover to him and helped him flee from the spot.
The injured CRPF men were immediately removed to Sub-District Hospital in Sopore where two of them were declared as brought dead. Another CRPF man succumbed to injuries in the hospital.
Two others were airlifted to Srinagar’s 92-Base Hospital in Badami Bagh Cantonment Srinagar for treatment. Sources said that the militants fled after carrying out attack as the other CRPF personnel and policemen were busy at the check point.
The troops immediately launched a massive operation in the area against the militants responsible for the attack. However, no one was arrested so far.
The martyred troops have been identified as Rajeev Sharma, 42, resident of Vaishal in Bihar, C B Bhakare, 38, of Buldhana in Maharashtra and Parmar Stayapal Singh, 28, of Sabarkantha in Gujarat.
Those who were injured are Javid Ahmed Amin, a local resident who is a driver and Biswajit Ghosh.
A police spokesman said that at about 1730 hours militants fired upon joint naka party of police and CRPF at Ahad Bab crossing area of Sopore.
“In the terror incident, 5 CRPF personnel of 179 BN sustained gunshot injuries and were evacuated to hospital for medical treatment. However, 3 injured CRPF personnel among them succumbed to their injuries and attained martyrdom”, the spokesman said.
“We paid our rich tributes to the martyrs who made supreme sacrifices in the line of duty”, the spokesman said.
Police has registered a case and investigations have been launched.
Inspector General of Police Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, told Excelsior that the militants who carried out the attack have been identified. “We have identified the militants responsible for the attack and will neutralize them soon”, he added. He said that they belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba.
In the meantime, two militants, who were shot dead by troops, were buried in Baramulla late last night.
Two families claimed that the two militants Rahil Magray of Ganawpora in district Shopian and Asif Ahmad Dar of Bungam in district Shopian were their wards and demanded that the bodies should be handed over to them.