Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Apr 20: Militants today killed an Assistant Sub Inspector of Jammu and Kashmir Police in the old city area of Srinagar at point blank range.
Police said ASI Sukhpal Singh of Police Post Bagyas in old city area of Srinagar was on duty in Daresh Kadal area of the city when he was fired at point blank range by pistol borne militants this morning.
The militants fled from the scene after carrying out the attack. The ASI was left in a pool of blood as he received three bullets. He was removed to the nearby SMHS hospital where doctors declared him bought dead.
Panic gripped the area after the militant attack and Senior Police officers rushed to the spot to take the stock of the situation.
The ASI had been appointed in 1983, as constable in the Jammu and Kashmir Executive Police. He was hailing from village Chatoosa-Dangiwacha, in district Baramulla and is survived by mother and spouse.
Police have launched a hunt to trace out the killers of the officer. Police sources said that the cop killer has probably come from outside Srinagar and fled after carrying out the attack. Police suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba hand behind the killing. However, Islamic Front militant organization has claimed responsibility for the attack. They have threatened more attacks on police.
The Police officer’s killing comes at a time when a function at city Centre Lal Chowk was going on for the removal of a bunker in city Centre. Minister of State for Home, Nasir Aslam Wani and Director General of Police, Kuldeep Khoda announced removal of the bunker at the function organized on the occasion where senior police and para-military CRPF officers and some National Conference workers and shopkeepers were present.
Later in the afternoon the Minister, Inspector General of Police (IGP), S M Sahai, and senior police officers attended wreath laying ceremony of the killed police officer at Police Control Room (PCR), Srinagar.
While speaking to media on the sidelights of the ceremony, the Minister described the killing as cowardly act by militants and said that moral of the police force and its jawans is high. He said that the killing of the police officer has nothing to do with the removal of bunkers from Srinagar city. He said that by this killing militants want to show their presence in Srinagar city.
The Minister said that there is no resident militant in Srinagar and police and security agencies were looking for the militants responsible for the killing.
This is the first killing by militants in Srinagar city this year. Earlier, militants shot dead 40-year-old Bashir Ahmad Dar, a National Conference (NC) worker, in Srinagar’s Batmaloo area on December 24 last year. Militants also fired at and injured a police constable in Saraibala and a religious scholar Peer Jalaludin Bangroo at Batmaloo in Srinagar last month.
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