Braveheart Rukhsana made SPO in JK police

Rukhsana Kausar, who shot into limelight by killing a Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist, has been appointed as special police officer along with her brother and uncle in the Jammu and Kashmir police, a police officer said on Monday.

The appointment of Rukhsana to the post comes more than a month after she killed a top Pakistani militant of the LeT and injured another on September 27.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Rajouri, Shafkat Wattali said that Rukhsana, her brother Aijaz and her uncle Wakalat Hussain, who was injured in the militant attack, have been appointed as SPOs in the police force recently and they were doing their job well.

He denied reports in the media that Rukhsana was being shifted to New Delhi for security reasons.

"There is no truth in media reports that Rukhsana or her parents are being shifted to Delhi for security reasons in view of the recent attack by militants on her house on Friday last," he said.

Wattali said Rukhsana has gone to New Delhi to attend an award function organised by the All India Anti-Terrorist Front headed by M S Bitta.

The award ceremony was originally to be held in Pune, but is now being held in Delhi, he said.

Wattali said it was a mere coincidence that Rukhsana and her parents left for Delhi on October 31, a day after the grenade attack on her house in Kalsian village in upper reaches of Shahdra Sharief.

After the attack, security has been further beefed up in her house and the place where she is currently staying in Rajouri, he said, adding, "It is the job of the police to review and upgrade the security of any citizen facing any kind of threat from militants."

Rukhsana, along with her 18-year-old brother Aijaz, had overpowered terrorists who had barged into their house, snatched an AK-47 from one of them and fired at him, killing him on the spot.

Her parents Noor Hussain and Rashida were injured in the incident. The bravery of Rukhsana, who had never picked up a gun before the September 27 incident, had came in for praise from President Pratibha Patil and Home Minister P Chidambaram during their visits to Jammu and Kashmir.