Srinagar
Militants on Monday offered a gun salute to their slain colleague during his funeral in a village in south Kashmir’s Shopian district.
Reports claimed that three militants appeared at the funeral prayers of Lashker-e-Toiba militant Ashiq Hussain Bhat in Rakh Kapran village and simultaneously fired shots in the air to offer the gun salute to their colleague.
Reports said army pressed helicopters into service to keep surveillance over the slain militant’s funeral.
On March 4, 2018, Army’s patrolling party was attacked by militants in Pahnoo area of Shopian in the evening. The attack left one militant named Shahid Ahmad Dar dead after a brief gunfight. After half-an-hour, as the sketchy reports of the incidents started to reach Srinagar, it was learnt that three civilians travelling in a car were also killed. However, army and police, in their official statements, termed the slain civilians as OGW’s of the militants. The next morning, with the discovery of two more bodies, one of a Lashkar-e-Toiba militant named Ashiq Hussain and a civilian named Gowhar Ahmad Lone, the death toll in Shopian incident climbed to six: two militants and four civilians.
As it’s a developing story, more details will follow.
