Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 12

A policeman was killed and five security men were injured in an ongoing gunfight that raged in a Srinagar’s congested locality on Sunday morning.

The gunfight erupted in Batamaloo locality days ahead of Independence Day, when Srinagar is on a high alert.

The gunfight started around 4 am when joint teams of the J&K Police and CRPF launched a cordon and search operation at Batamaloo after inputs about presence of two to three militants.

“The CASO turned into a gunfight when hiding militants fired indiscriminately upon the security forces. In the initial gunfight, three policemen and equal number of the CRPF were injured. One of the injured policemen later succumbed to injuries,” a senior security officer said.

The operation in the congested locality is still under way.

The gunfight is taking place close to the same spot where a CRPF man was killed and another was injured in a militant attack on July 24.

12 SPOs have quit, announce Imams

Fallout of relentless attacks on cops in South Kashmir districts

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 11

At least 12 Special Police Officers (SPOs) of the J&K Police, all posted in South Kashmir districts, have quit. An announcement in this regard was made by local Imams (priests) on their behalf after the Friday prayers.The Imams of two mosques, while delivering sermons at Luraw Jagir and Pastoona Sayedabad villages of Tral in Pulwama district, on Friday announced that seven SPOs had  “quit their job” and were back home. At least five more SPOs “resigned publicly”  after the announcement, said sources. The resignations are seen as a fallout of the relentless militant attacks on policemen and SPOs, who are part-time police employees, in the past two weeks. Only some days ago, the state police had launched a crowd-funding campaign on Twitter to provide financial aid to the families of 499 SPOs killed while fighting militants. On August 7, an SPO was injured in an attack in Tral. A day earlier, militants had fired at another SPO but he escaped unhurt. On July 28, militants had released SPO Mudasir Lone, whom they had abducted the same morning. Before setting him free, they released a videotape of Lone urging fellow SPOs to quit their jobs. The SPOs, who number 24,000,  are paid a pittance —  Rs 6,000 per month.Dangerous trend

• All SPOs  who resigned were posted in South Kashmir districts
• Imam of Pastoona Sayedabad Jamia mosque announced resignations of Parvaiz Ahmed Ahanger, Hilal Ahmed Khan, Muzaffar Ahmed Khan and  Mudasir Ahmed Mir
• Imam of Luraw Jagir mosque announced resignations of Ishaq Ahmed Bhat, Gulzar Ahmed Wani and Aijaz Ahmed Mir
• J&K Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid said they were ‘verifying facts’