M A I N   N E W S

Cong leader shot, 9 hurt in blast

Srinagar, April 20
Five persons, including a Congress leader and a woman, were killed and nine others, one among them a newly-elected sarpanch, injured in the Kashmir valley, where the Border Security Force (BSF) unearthed a big haul of arms and ammunition since last night.

Congress leader and surrendered militant, Sareer Ahmad Khan, was shot dead by militants outside a mosque at Chandoosa in Baramula district around 2.35 pm today, a police spokesman said.

He said Khan’s bodyguard, Shoukat Ahmad, who was working as SPO with the local police, was also killed and a civilian, Mohammad Saleem Beig seriously injured in the shootout.

Sareer was attacked by unknown militants who had laid an ambush in the area, the spokesman said adding Khan was the brain-behind “aman march” (peace march) in Baramula in 1996 elections in the state — the first by any political party in the state since the start of militancy in the state in 1989. His killing is considered as a setback to the Congress in north Kashmir, party sources said.

Unidentified militants gunned down a woman identified as Sabi Bano while she was grazing her cattle at Sudhal forest in Kupwara district last evening, an official spokesman said.

He said five civilians received splinter injuries when militants exploded a grenade near Baramula.

The grenade was hurled by militants towards a moving security vehicle but it missed the target and exploded on the road causing civilian casualties, the spokesman said, adding the injured were shifted to hospital where the condition of one of them was stated to be “critical”.

A newly-elected sarpanch, Lal Wani, was critically injured by militants who attacked him with sharp-edged weapons at Sunderwani in Baramula district last night. Wani, a National Conference activist, was hospitalised, he said.

The spokesman said the BSF seized a big haul of arms and ammunition, including three AK assault rifles, four magazines with 89 rounds, a pistol, six rounds, four grenades, 600 grams of RDX, two detonators, two remote control devices and seven wireless antennas from Baba-Wuyal forest in the Ganderbal area on the outskirts of Srinagar last night. PTI