Unknown militants stole the service rifle of a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel after beating him with sticks in south Kashmir’s Tral town on Wednesday. The security forces fired in the air and cordoned off a vast area following the incident but the INSAS rifle was not traced anywhere.
Sources said that a column of CRPF personnel was on duty in one-kilometer stretch of the road between Police station and bus stand in Tral town when unknown assailants pounced upon a cop laxman Das of 185-battalion and attacked him with a stick. The cop fell unconscious and militants stole his rifle. It is not clear whether the cop followed Standard Operating Procedure that advises soldiers to hold weapons tightly with rifle-belts around their necks.
Sources said that militants have conducted fresh recruitments in the area but their cadre are facing shortage of weapons. They said that Hizbul Mujahideen outfit is suspected to be involved in the attack.
This is the second incident in Tral since April when militants ambushed and killed four Rashtriya Rifles men and snatched their rifles. The stolen rifles were recovered from a subsequent encounter with militants, in which three of them were killed.
Security officials say that militants in south Kashmir were facing acute shortage of weapons that forces them to carry out hit and run attacks to snatch weapons from security forces.
Two months ago, famous cardiologist Dr Jalal was killed attacked in Pampore town and his two police bodyguards were killed and their rifles were snatched. Dr. Jalal also died subsequently. Sources said that attack on Dr Jalal was also carried out for snatching weapons. Riflle snatching incidents have also occurred in south Kashmir’s Shopian district.