KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
The three cop killings Monday rattled the lull prevailing over the city for some time now. The top cops term it a desperate attempt by “unknown gunmen” to derail the calm of city at a time when tourist season is picking up.
The first attack surfaced at Zadibal. The locals who eye-witnessed the killings said they saw two motor-cycle borne youth pulling their bike in front of a tea stall where two cops were sipping tea. ASI Naseer Ahmad and constable Bashir Ahmad were shot dead point blank by the assailants before driving away. Both the cops hailing for north Kashmir’s Kupwara were taken to Zadibal Police Station.
While the security grid was amidst making sense of the attack, another cop was shot dead in Tengpora, where the assailant even decamped with his service rifle.
Whether the Monday’s attacks have marked the return of security concerns in Srinagar or not, but the police higher ups believe they are staring at simmering summer. “I believe,” says a SSP rank officer, “these attacks must not be dismissed as hit-and-run type cases. There might be more to them than what meets an eye.”
Interestingly, these attacks have come on close heels of Dragmulla killings, where army claimed to gun down five militants. But, the villagers strongly contested the army claims, saying that “it was a staged encounter”.
