SP Sopore has narrow escape in major attack on his house

Militants fired grenades, destroyed SP’s bedroom in midnight strike

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Dec 6: Superintendent of Police (SP), Sopore, Altaf Khan, had a providential escape when militants launched a major strike on his house from a distance of 30 meters and caused heavy damage to his bedroom during last night.

SP Sopore, Altaf Khan, told Early Times that a group of heavily armed militants drew incredibly close to his official residence at Town Hall, Sopore, at around 20 minutes past midnight and targeted the Police and CRPF-guarded structure with UBGLs, RPGs and AK-56 rifles. He said that the grenades fired with complete precision, evidently by well-trained militants, landed well in his bedroom and caused considerable damage to its interior.

“It was simply my good luck that I had moved to an adjoining room. I first took it as an earthquake but realized soon that it was a terrorist strike to kill me. Guarded retaliated for about five minutes and forced the militants to vanish in darkness”, Mr Khan said. When security forces and ballistic experts made an extensive inspection of the site today, a Commanding Officer of Rashtriya Rifles opined that the militants had fired from a distance of just 30 meters.

Officials confirmed that the targeted house suffered some damage but they maintained that nobody was killed or injured in the midnight strike witnessed in Sopore township after several years.

From November 2009 to February 2010, militants had almost staged a comeback while striking and killing a number of Police and CRPF personnel at different places in Sopore area. In October later, they also attacked the house of NC’s MLA, Haji Mohammad Ashraf Ganai in Sopore outskirts. In one of these attacks at Police Station Sopore, militants also succeeded in killing one of SP Sopore’s personal security officers. This is, however, first time that they have struck on the official residence of the District Police chief in the apple-town with incredible precision. None of the militant outfit’s had claimed responsibility of the attack till late tonight.

Even as Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad have established their presence in Sopore area with certain subversive activities this year, officials insist that well-trained militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba, most likely Pakistani cadres, were involved in carrying out the attack on SP’s residence.

Later today, reports from Sopore said that Police and security forces had launched a major operation to identify and apprehend the militants involved in the strike. According to these reports, confirmed by officials, Police have arrested two brothers, namely Jihangir and Javed, sons of Saifullah, and Maulvi Mohammad Afzal from Iqbal Nagar locality. They have been reportedly subjected to sustained interrogation but it was not immediately clear whether their questioning had yielded anything substantial or not.

With the help of call detail records of the mobile phones recovered from three youth killed in the Qamarwari shootout on November 29^th, Police have learned that the trio had set out for a “cop killing operation in Srinagar” from Ontoo Hamam locality of Sopore. Two of the three youth killed minutes after they gunned down a Constable have been identified as residents of Seer Jagir and Alsafa Colony of Sopore while as third one surfaced as a resident of Bandipore.

Residents of Parimpora-Qamarwari area today staged a protest demonstration and blocked the highway when Police swooped on the peripheral locality and arrested one Nazir Ahmed Mir.

END