SSB trooper killed, six security men injured in Kashmir attack

A Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) trooper was killed and six other security personnel injured when guerrillas attacked their convoy on the outskirts of Srinagar on Friday evening, police said.

An SSB trooper was killed and six other security men including five SSB troopers and a state police driver injured when militants attacked the convoy in Zakura area, 12 km from city centre Lal Chowk, around 7 p.m., police said.

"A 3-vehicle convoy of the SSB was returning after the day's law and order duties on the Srinagar-Leh National Highway when militants attacked it outside the industrial estate in Zakura area where the SSB troops are camped.

"One SSB jawan sustained critical injuries in the attack and later succumbed. Six other security men including five SSB jawans and a driver of the state police have been injured in the attack," said police, adding all the injured security men have been shifted to hospital.

Police said that additional security forces have been rushed to the spot, while the area has been cordoned off for searches, but firing has, however, stopped.

The militants were believed to have fled the spot.

The attack, the second on security forces in the Kashmir Valley in less than a week, took place outside the highly sensitive Zakura industrial area that houses many offices and factories of small and medium businesses in Kashmir.

Militancy-related violence and terror attacks on security forces have surged in Jammu and Kashmir after the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

Wani's death has sparked an unprecedented wave of protests in the Kashmir Valley, leaving over 90 people dead and thousands injured in clashes between protesters and security forces.

Earlier this week, two militants were killed after a three-day-long gun fight with security forces in Pampore area on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.

--IANS

sq/vd