SRINAGAR: A member of the paramilitary Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) was killed in Banihal. He was guarding a construction site that is implementing a rail tunnel project, reports said. His colleague was injured in the shootout and has been admitted to a hospital.
Pic: Bilal Bahadur
Officials said the incident was reported at around 7:10 pm outside the base cap of Navayuga Engineering, a construction company that is implementing a tunnel project. The exact spot is Gund, almost 9 kms short of Banihal, where the four way tunnel is being implemented.
Police identified the slain was identified as Ram Pravesh, a head constable while as injured is Sham Singh, an ASI. Both of them belong to SSB’s 14 Bn.
A police officer said the investigations are going on to see if it was a battle within two men or a militant ambush. Reports not immediately confirmed by the police said there were a total of nine SSB men deployed on guard and all of a sudden two men left. Within a few minutes, there was a fire. The injured has been hurt by a blunt object and has lost most of his teeth and the slain man has a point blank range fire.
Senior police officers were quoted by various media reports suggested they were investigating if the killing was the result of fratricide.
