Militant kills self to avoid capture
A suspected militant shot himself dead inside a mosque in the north-western Kashmir town of Sopore to evade arrest by security personnel on Wednesday, the first incident of its kind in Kashmir’s 23-year-old insurgency.
Though the incident was described as “mysterious” by many locals, the police said that pistol-carrying Tamir Ahmed Khuroo, alias Junaid, a resident of the town’s Kralteng locality, opened fire at a CRPF pillbox in neighbouring Arampora at 11.50 am. He was chased by jawans led by sub-inspector Badloo Ram. The assailant ran into Fatima mosque in Gulabad locality and, when the CRPF men laid siege to the mosque, they heard a single gunshot.
“A Muslim resident, Muhammad Akbar Sofi, who was asked to enter the mosque, saw a young man lying dead inside with a pistol beside him,” the police said, adding that the corpse was retrieved after seeking the help of two other civilians and some police personnel of the same faith.
The police claimed the youth who committed suicide had been involved in stone-pelting incidents in Sopore in the summer of 2010.
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