Militants gun down cop at bunker removal site in Srinagar

Militants struck in the heart of summer capital Srinagar on Friday morning killing an assistant sub-inspector of the state police.

The incident occurred when the state deputy home minister, Nasir Aslam Wani, along with top police and paramilitary CRPF officers were overseeing the removal of the spacious bunker located at the city centre, Lal Chowk, inside a partially burnt cinema hall.

The area around had been sealed by the police and CRPF troopers for the occasion, as senior police and paramilitary officers including the state Director General of Police Kuldeep Khuda were present as the site. The bunker had been setup in the area in the early 1990s when militancy erupted in the Valley.

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The militants, however, struck in the congested Wattal Kadal area of the old city, nearly four kilometers from the city centre pumping bullets from a close range at an on-duty ASI of police, Sukh Pal Singh.

According to a senior police officer, Singh was immediately shifted to the nearby SMHS hospital for treatment where he succumbed.

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The ASI, according to police sources was under transfer to north Kashmir Baramulla district and was to be relieved from his present posting on Friday.

A search operation in the area followed the shooting for which no group has yet claimed responsibility.

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So far 40 bunkers from various localities of the capital city have been removed by the CRPF.

The state government plans to remove more bunkers from the capital city in a phased manner following a drop in the overall violence.

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