Two soldiers and a policeman were killed in an ambush by militants in north Kashmir’s Baramulla town a few hours after a police party was attacked with a grenade in south Kashmir’s Kakapora area in the wee hours of Wednesday, injuring five cops.
The twin attacks occurred on the heels of a militant attack on Independence Day in which the Commanding Officer of the Central Reserve Police Force was martyred at Nowhatta in Old Srinagar on Monday. The incidents of militancy have taken place amid curfew and shutdown in the Valley that crippled normal life for the 40th consecutive day.
Sources said that the militants attacked the Army convoy at Khwaja Bagh in Baramulla town of north Kashmir around 2.30 am on Tuesday. The militants hurled a number of grenades and fired automatic weapons to target four vehicles at the tail-end of the convoy on the way to Baramulla from Srinagar.
Due to the current unrest in Kashmir the Army has stopped movement of convoys during the day as the protests have hampered the Army's movement and hit supplies to most of the units in the countryside. The vehicles go to the camps either at night or the essentials are supplied through helicopter sorties.
Sources said that two to three militants launched an 30 minute, intense attack on the Army convoy and later escaped from the scene under the cover of darkness.
At least four soldiers were injured and two of them later succumbed to their injuries. A policeman Prithpal Singh travelling in a separate vehicle was also killed while two more cops were injured.
Hizbul Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack. The operational spokesperson of the terrorist group Burhanuddin told a local news agency on phone that at least five Armymen were killed in the attack carried out by a special squad of the outfit. "Some of the Indian armed men also sustained serious injuries," he said.
However, police sources said that a group of Jaish-e-Muhammad militants, active in the area for the past one month, was behind the attack. The group has recently sneaked into the Valley.
In another late night attack, five police personnel were injured when unidentified militants hurled a grenade towards a police party at Kakapora in south Kashmir's Pulwama district.
Meanwhile, the authorities took into custody separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq when they attempted to march towards the office of United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan at Sonwar in Srinagar. The separatists have asked people to march towards the UN office that has the mandate to observe the line of Control dividing two parts of Kashmir, to hand over memorandums seeking the world body's intervention for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. The separatists have asked the people to observe sit-in if they are stopped by the security forces.
The authorities imposed strict curfew in capital Srinagar and several sensitive towns of the Valley to foil the prospective demonstrations.
A group of women marched towards the UN office from Dalgate but they were stopped and dispersed by the police force.
Sources said that massive public gatherings were held at Bandipora, Yaripora (Kulgam) and Shopian in south Kashmir. At Pinjora village in Shopian, protesters set ablaze an effigy of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.