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Militants strike again, kill 2 elite cops

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

After Wednesday's attack on the 15 Corps headquarters in Srinagar, militants today stormed a heavily guarded matriculation examination centre at Wagoora Kreeri Pattan and shot dead two policemen of the elite Special Operations Group.

One student was also killed in the attack while another was critically injured.

Police said a group of heavily armed extremists forced their way into the exam centre and opened fire on the SOG personnel on guard, killing two policemen, including an assistant sub-inspector.

The slain policemen have been identified as ASI Abdul Jabbar and Constable Mohammad Ishaq. The injured student was rushed to hospital.

Militants also shot dead an official of the counter-intelligence unit of the state police, identified as Qawam-ud-Din Peer, at Kakroosa Vilgam in Kupwara district of north Kashmir.

Meanwhile, security around the Badami Bagh Cantonment has been further tightened. Commandos have been deployed all around the cantonment, headquarters of the 15 Corps, which is engaged in counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir. The corps also guards the Line of Control with Pakistan.

Passers-by are being thoroughly searched. Traffic resumed plying on the Srinagar-Anantnag National Highway via Batwara late yesterday. Shops also reopened in the cantonment area today.

Meanwhile, the bodies of the defence ministry's slain public relations officer, Major P Purushottam, and his staff were flown to New Delhi today.

Purushottam's wife and daughter arrived in Srinagar today and accompanied the bodies back. There were touching scenes when the wife, herself a deputy matron in the army hospital at Meerut, and their eight-year-old daughter Pallavi saw the coffin. Both had to be supported when they broke down as soldiers reversed their weapons and saluted the major.

Pallavi wanted to know what exactly had happened to her father. She had several questions for the waiting journalists. "How was he feeling at that time? Who else was there? Why did they kill him?"

The major's body will be flown later from Delhi to Jabalpur. Minister for Medical Education Dr Mustafa Kamal and senior army officers laid wreaths on the coffin.

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