Suspected militant shot and critically wounded a Jammu and Kashmir police official at Darish Kadal in central Srinagar on Friday. The victim, ASI Sukhpal Singh, was quickly moved to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.
Islamic Front, an obscure outfit, has admitted responsibility for the attack. A caller identifying himself as Sheikh Jamsheed telephoned Greater Kashmir newspaper office to say, “We killed the police officer. Such attacks will continue in future also.”
Officials said they have taken up investigations and are verifying the veracity of the claim.
The officials blamed the shooting at Darish Kadal, merely four km from Lal Chowk, on separatist militants terming it as an attempt on their part to show their presence. They said it was an “isolated incident” and a “desperate act” of militants which should not be seen as a reflection of the overall security situation in Srinagar.
CM Omar Abdullah was upset at some of the national TV news channels portraying the police official having been targeted with a silencer fitted pistol at point blank range as a “shootout”. Some language TV channels even reported the police official was killed at Lal Chowk itself soon after removing of the CRPF bunker. Mr. Abdullah tweeted, “Dear TV channels. There was no ‘shootout in downtown’. A single militant with a pistol fired four shots…tragic consequences but no ‘shootout.”
Officials said ASI Sukhpal Singh was posted with the area (Bagyas-Chattabal) police post and was performing his duty at Darish Kadal when targeted by pistol-borne militant from close range.
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Chowk nerve of historic J&K moments
age correspondent
SRINAGAR, April 20
Srinagar’s Lal Chowk has a history of sorts behind it. When the tribal militia from Pakistan invaded Jammu and Kashmir in autumn 1947, the National Conference (NC) named Srinagar’s central square Lal Chowk, and its activists, owing allegiance to G.M. Sadiq, a known Leftist who was highly influenced by the Bolshevik revolution, put up a red flag there shored up by huge stones. Lal Chowk was the take-off point for travel outside Kashmir and regular bus services would operate from here to Rawalpindi, Muzaffarabad, Jammu, Amritsar and other places.
The famous tour operators included Nanda Bus, Allied Chiraguddin, Diamond Bus and N.D. Radhakrishan. Also, tonga services to different parts of the Valley were available from Lal Chowk. Previously, it would be called Palladium Chowk for its close proximity to the Valley’s one of the oldest cinema houses Palladium, which was requisitioned as temporary barracks by security forces in 1990.
It was at Lal Chowk that Kashmir’s legendary leader Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, after joining hands with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, pledged, “Tu man shodi, man tu shudam (You are in me, I’m in you).”