New Delhi: A Jammu and Kashmir Police constable was shot and injured by suspected militants in Bemina on the outskirts of Srinagar city in Kashmir, officials said. The victim has been shifted to the Army hospital in a critical condition.
A senior police official said that the attack took place on Saturday evening, December 9, when suspected militants shot the police constable identified as Hafiz Mohammad Chad, in Hamdania Colony of Bemina.
A J&K police spokesman said on X: “Terrorists fired upon & injured one police personnel namely Mohammad Hafiz Chad S/O Gh Hassan Chad R/O Bemina at Hamdaniya colony Bemina. He has been shifted to hospital for treatment. Area cordoned off. Further details shall follow.”
Officials said that the victim, a resident of Karnah in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district who was presently living in Srinagar, was shifted to the nearby SKIMS Medical College in Bemina.
“The patient was shifted to the Army’s base hospital after initial examination,” Dr Shifa A. Deva, Medical Superintendent of SKIMS Medical College, told The Wire.
A video filmed in the aftermath of the attack shows a group of gun-toting police and army personnel arriving at the site where the police constable was shot.
Bemina area, which falls on Srinagar-Baramulla highway, has a history of attacks on security personnel. In 2021, a police constable was shot and killed in a militant attack. In 2013, five security personnel were killed while ten more were injured in a suicide attack which was claimed by Hizbul Mujahideen.
The most recent attack took place a day after a J&K police inspector, who was injured in a militant attack on October 29 this year, succumbed to his injuries at the All India Institute of Medical Science in New Delhi. The victim, Masroor Ahmad Wani, was airlifted to the national capital earlier this week after his condition deteriorated.
Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the wreath laying ceremony for the slain inspector, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Vijay Kumar had asserted that the officers and other ranks of police have been directed to follow Standard Operating Procedure to avoid incidents like the one in which Wani was targeted.
The off-duty cop was shot and critically injured while playing cricket at Eidgah ground in Srinagar.
Earlier this week, Union home minister Amit Shah, while speaking in the parliament, said that the incidents of terrorism have reduced in Jammu and Kashmir following the reading down of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two union territories.
However, official data suggests that Jammu region, which was largely militancy-free before J&K lost its special constitutional position, has witnessed a sharp rise in attacks on civilians and security forces, especially in the last two years during which more than two dozen security personnel were killed.
