Guerrillas kill cop in south Kashmir

A police officer was killed Friday in a guerrilla hit-and-run attack in south Kashmir's Pulwama district.

A senior police officer told IANS: "Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of police Farooq Ahmad was shot by unidentified militants in Rajpora chowk today (Friday) afternoon."

Pulwama town, where the incident occurred, is 30 kilometres from Srinagar.

"He was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to critical injuries en route," the police officer said.

Fifty-five-year-old Farooq Ahmad belonged to Batmaloo locality in Srinagar, and was posted in south Kashmir Pulwama police station.

Last month, four policemen were killed in north Kashmir Baramulla district by guerrillas belonging to the Hizbul Mujahideen group. The guerrillas had forced a local sarpanch to call the policemen to Hygam village in Baramulla district, where they waited in ambush to attack the security personnel.

Sources here suggest that intelligence inputs about groups of trained guerrillas preparing to sneak into the Valley from across the Line of Control (LoC) have been pouring in after the mountain passes opened up, with the melting of snow this spring.