Srinagar, March 31
In the third major strike by their outfit here in a fortnight, Hizbul Mujahideen ultras today blew up a CRPF vehicle with an improvised explosive device killing a jawan and injuring five others, including an Assistant Commandant of the force. The IED, planted by militants on Ali Jan Road at Soura, was set off when the vehicle of 123rd Battalion of the CRPF was passing through the area this afternoon, a CRPF spokesman told PTI.
He said an Assistant Commandant and five jawans who were travelling in the vehicle were injured of whom one jawan, Head Constable Madan Singh, later succumbed in the hospital.
Official sources said the CRPF vehicle was on way to Soura from Safakadal and on reaching Golchipora near Soura medical institute it came under the IED attack. The vehicle was also damaged in the blast.
The injured were identified as Assistant Commandant Abdul Rashid, Head Constable M.W. Khan, Constables Mehar Din, Dinesh Kumar and Abisheikh Sharma.
The CRPF spokesman said the whole area near the scene of the blast was cordoned off and a massive hunt has been launched to nab the militants.
In a statement to a local news agency, the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit claimed responsibility for the blast.
Meanwhile, three militants of Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Toiba outfit were killed in two separate gunfights with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, where ultras shot at and injured two persons after abducting them from their houses in Anantnag district.
Two ultras were killed in a fierce gunbattle at Visnhu village in Pulwama early today.
— PTI
