A police officer from Jammu and Kashmir was shot and severely wounded by terrorists in downtown Srinagar on 29 October when he was playing cricket at an Eidgah ground with several local youngsters. The wounded was identified as police inspector Masroor Ahmad Wani. The cop was swiftly transported to a hospital after the incident. According to reports, he is receiving medical attention and his condition is considered critical.
#Terrorists fired upon & injured Inspector Masroor Ahmad near Eidgah, Srinagar. He was immediately shifted to hospital for treatment. Preliminary #investigation reveals that a pistol was used in this #terror crime. Area cordoned off, case registered.@JmuKmrPolice
— Kashmir Zone Police (@KashmirPolice) October 29, 2023
A pistol was used by the terrorists to carry out the crime. The Resistance Front (TRF), a terrorist group supported by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba has taken responsibility for the attack, according to police sources who added that CCTV has been scanned to obtain further information about the perpetrators. They also revealed that Momin and Basit Dar, two terrorists from LeT are operating in the region.
Security has been tightened and the area has been cordoned off to track the assailants. Meanwhile, a case has been registered by the police as well.
The development transpired just a few days after Pakistan Rangers engaged in an unprovoked firing and bombarded at the international border with mortars and injured two members of the Border Security Force (BSF) and a civilian on 26 October. Dozens of locals have fled their houses in search of safety as a result of the shelling that is targeting residential areas.
Key officials from Jammu and Kashmir as well as representatives from other security agencies attended a high-level conference that was called on 25 October at the headquarters of the 15 Corps in Srinagar. The involvement of foreign terrorists in Kashmir was one of the main subjects covered during the meeting. Notably, five Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were eliminated earlier on 26 October in an encounter between them and security forces in the Machhal area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
Only nine of the 46 terrorists killed in Jammu and Kashmir this year were locals, while 37 of them were of Pakistani descent, based on official figures. In the 33-year history of terrorism in the Union Territory, this is the first time that the number of foreign terrorists murdered has quadrupled over the number of local terrorists.
The Resistance Front
The Resistance Front or TRF is a separatist terrorist organisation involved in the ongoing insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir. Indian security agencies accuse it of being an offshoot of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). It operates primarily in the Kashmir region with a main base in Srinagar.
It was founded by Sheikh Sajjad Gul of Srinagar and Muhammad Abbas Sheikh of Kulgam, a former Hizbul Mujahideen commander after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. It is considered the deadliest and biggest terrorist outfit in the current era of Kashmir militancy. It carried out dozens of attacks across Jammu and Kashmir targeting Indian security forces, pro-Indian politicians, Hindu activists, non-Kashmiri migrant laborers and Kashmiri pundits.
Importantly, the terror outfit claimed credit for the Anantnag incident on 14 September and alleged that the attack was carried out as payback for the assassination of their terrorist Riyaz Ahmad alias Abu Qasim inside the Al-Qudus mosque in Rawalkot, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Colonel Manpreet Singh, Major Ashish Dhonak and Deputy Superintendent of Police Humayun Bhat were killed in action during an encounter with terrorists in the Kokorenag area of Anantnag.
