Morning cup of tea proves fatal for two policemen shot dead in upmarket Srinagar area
Srinagar, Feb 20 (PTI) A regular morning cup of tea proved fatal for two unarmed policemen who were gunned down by a militant in broad daylight in an upmarket Srinagar area, an incident witnessed by several people and captured on CCTV cameras, police said on Friday.
The two policemen, posted in nearby Saddar Police station on the high-security airport road, had gone to a close by shop to have their morning tea when they were attacked by the militant, police officials said.
The nearby police station and a security bunker at the beginning of a lane had given them the confidence to go to the tea shop unarmed, they said.
The militant, identified as Saqib, can be seen pulling out an assault rifle hidden inside his ‘pheran’, a loose over-garment worn during winters, and pumping bullets at them at a close range.
The attacker can be seen fleeing from the spot as people scatter around in horror.
Police said that there were two other accomplices with him at a distance, which included a wanted militant from South Kashmir
“We have identified the militant and we will soon catch hold of him,” Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police, Dilbagh Singh, told PTI here.
Saqib, according to the police, had joined militancy seven months back. The Resistance Front (TRF), believed to be a shadow outfit of the banned Lashkar-e-Taibar group, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The two policemen were rushed to SMHS hospital. Constable Suhail was the first one to succumb while his colleague, Constable Mohammed Yusuf, lost the battle of life as he was being wheeled into the operation theatre, police said.
Immediately after the incident, police teams rushed to the area and took into their possession recordings from CCTV cameras installed by shops and houses. This led them to identify the militant as Saqib from Barzulla area in the city.
This was the second attack in the city in three days.
On Wednesday evening, militants shot at and injured the son of a popular eatery owner in the city’s high security Durganag area at a time when a 24-member delegation of envoys from various countries visited Jammu and Kashmir to assess the ground situation in the union territory.
