Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 17: Militants last night decamped with five rifles from policemen guarding Television Tower at Dooru area of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district while security forces conducted major anti-militancy operation in North Kashmir’s Baramulla town and arrested 34 people.
Militants last night barged into the guardroom of TV tower and decamped with five rifles at Dalvash village of Dooru area in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
Militants overpowered security guards of TV tower and snatched weapons and later managed to flee from the spot. Senior officials from police rushed to the spot to assess the situation.
The five snatched rifles include an Insas, 3 SLR and one carbine. The security guards have been suspended for negligence and police is investigating the case and the cops are being questioned.
However, in Sanroo village of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district, cops guarding minorities foiled an attempt by the militants to snatch their weapons last night.
The guards fired as militants tried to force their entry into the guard room. The militants fled after retaliation by police. Police and Army immediately reached the spot and cordoned off the area but militants had fled.
The last night’s weapon snatching form Police is 9th incident since July this year in South Kashmir during which 26 rifles were snatched. These include 11 Insas, 8 SLR, five AK-47 rifles, one .303 rifle and one carbine.
The Special Director General of Police, Coordination, Law and Order, Dr SP Vaid when asked about the weapon snatching by the militants in South Kashmir today said: “If there would be negligence, we will make improvement. We will see where mistake occurred.”
In the meantime, a major anti-militancy operation was today launched in Old town Baramulla in North Kashmir during which 34 people were arrested.
The operation was launched by the Police, Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF) after inputs that 3-4 militants of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) are hiding in the area. However, sources said that the militants had fled before the operation was launched.
The security forces had inputs for last two months about the group of JeM militants presence in the town and they carried out two attacks in the town, one in August on an Army convoy in which two Army men and one cop was killed and another attack on an Army camp in Old town area early this month in which one BSF man was killed and another was injured.
The security forces cordoned the Old Town at around 3 a.m. and conducted house to house searches. The operation lasted for 12 hours during which security forces arrested 34 persons. Some of them have been arrested on charges of supporting militants, others on charges of fomenting trouble in the town.
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