Four policemen, including a junior officer, were killed in a deadly Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast inside a closed Gole market in north Kashmir’s Sopore town, 50 kilometres from here, on Saturday around 9.30 am.
Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) terror outfit, which carried out a suicide attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) last week killing five personnel, owned up the deadly attack. This is first IED blast since 2015 and indicates to the renewed strategy of terrorists after the revival of JeM outfit.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti denounced the attack and urged people to work shoulder to shoulder to break the “vortex of violence” in the State. She tweeted, “Pained to hear that four policemen have been killed in an IED explosion in Sopore. My deepest condolences to their families.”
The security forces launched cordon and search operation in the area after the blast but no arrests were made. Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) Munir Khan said the IED had been planted in a shop and triggered off when police personnel on duty came closer to it.
Sources said in the backdrop of shutdown call, police personnel were deployed in sensitive localities for law and order duty.
The separatist groups had called for a shutdown in Sopore area to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a fire incident in which they claimed 57 civilians were killed and several houses burned. They claimed that many innocents were targetted.
They said some noises came from the Gole Market side and as soon as policemen on duty approached the area, there was a massive blast that ripped apart bodies of four policemen. Three shops were damaged in the blast, eyewitnesses said.
The slain policemen have been identified as Assistant sub-inspector Irshad Ahmad and constables Ghulam Nabi, Muhammad Amin and Parvez Ahmad. The constables belonged to the Sopore area while the junior officer was from Doda in Jammu region.
“The Shaheed Afzal Guru squad carried out the attack,” JeM spokesperson said.
Talking to reporters at the wreath laying ceremony in Sopore, Khan said the blast was “very powerful” and it was first IED blast since 2015. He said even as the situation was serious but police would tackle it. He said police would verify and investigate every detail related to the blast.
The IED explosion took place a week after JeM militants carried out a suicide attack at a CRPF camp at lethpora village in Pulwama district. Five CRPF men were killed and 3 others injured in the attack that continued for 36 hours and culminated on the killing of three attackers. The suicide attackers included 16-year Fardeen Khanday, son of a policeman from Tral area, who had joined terrorist ranks nine months ago. The attack was carried out to avenge the killing of JeM’s ‘divisional commander’ for south Kashmir Noor Muhammad Tantray who was killed by the security forces on December 24. Tantray, a 47-year dwarf had served a long jail term in Tihar and was out on parole when he joined JeM to revive it in Kashmir. Sources said he carried a large cache of arms in his possession, which he distributed among the new recruits. Days before his death, terrorists threw body of a foreigner at Tral Eidgah with a note that he died while fabricating an IED. They had asked people to give decent burial to the ultra.
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also expressed sorrow over the deaths. “May the four brave J&K police personnel killed in the line of duty today rest in peace,” Abdullah tweeted.
The State Congress president Gulam Ahmad Mir said the incident had exposed the tall claims of the Mehbooba Government about the Kashmir situation being normal.