A policeman decamped with four automatic rifles in south Kashmir sending the entire constabulary in a tizzy ahead of Republic day in Kashmir. Two co-villagers and former classmates of the missing policeman have also left their homes untraceably. Police suspect the trio has joined the militant ranks. A massive manhunt has been launched to track down the deserter and his accomplices.

Sources said that 23-year-old constable Shakoor Ahmad Parray, a resident of Kundalan village of mountainous Shopian district of south Kashmir was posted in Bijbehara within the escort detail of Deputy Superintendent of Police (operations), Irshad Ahmad Rather.

Rather was critically wounded in a militant attack in Bijbehara on December 24. Nursing bullet wounds, he is undergoing advanced treatment in Army’s 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar.

Sources said police launched raided several houses, including Parray’s home, to track him down. He has reportedly decamped with weapons during the night intervening December 15 and 16.

The police suspect that parray might have joined militant ranks as two of his childhood friends Ghazi Fayaz Darand Aaqib Ahmad Dar are also absconding from their village.

Shopian is one of the south Kashmir areas where a sizeable number of militants is still active.

This is the first case of police constable deserting with service riles in Kashmir this year. last year, a policeman Naseer Ahmad Pandit, who was detailed with the then Minister of Roads and Buildings Altaf Bukhari fled with his service rifle from the Minister’s residence in lal Chowk area of Srinagar.

Pandit was later spotted in a video released by Hizbul Mujahideen’s “Divisional Commander” Burhan Wani.

Pandit, a resident of Karimabad village of Pulwama, had, like Parray, no history of association with militant groups.