A day after three policemen were abducted and killed in Shopian district of South Kashmir, the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists issued threats to another 24 policemen including two officers posted in the militancy-infested South Kashmir, asking them to quit.
According to reports, the Hizbul Mujahideen released pictures of these personnel on the social media asking them to quit or endure dire consequences.
While issuing threats to 24 policemen, the militants posted a picture of one particular officer saying that he will not be spared, “There is no warning for you, will send you to hell.” In another post, the Hizbul asked women constables and SPOs to resign too.
According to the officers posted in Jammu and Kashmir, the militants, with an aim to demoralise the force, are resorting to ‘psychological warfare’.
Hizbul Mujahideen had recently issued threats to policemen and special police officers (SPOs) to quit their jobs or they would be targeted.
A group of armed militants on Friday abducted three cops- Nisar Ahmad Dhobi (38), Firdous Ahmad (28) and Kulwant Singh (35), from Kaprin and Batagund towns in Sopian district. A relative of a cop was also abducted. While the relative was later set free, the militants brutally shot the three cops. The bodies were recovered from an orchard in Wangam area, more than a kilometre from the village the policemen were abducted from.
Intercepted communication between Pakistan-based handlers and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir asking latter to kill the abducted SPOs while freeing a civilian prompted Modi government to immediately call off proposed talks between external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Sources in the Indian intelligence agencies told The Times of India, that the reason behind this sudden decision was intercepted messages from Pakistan giving pinpointed instructions to the terrorists to kill the police officers who had been abducted. The messages were chillingly specific identifying the victims by their names. The militants were also specifically instructed to release the civilian they had held hostage along with the police officers.
The Modi government taking serious note of the brutal killing of security personnel and the recent release of a series of 20 postage stamps by the neighbour “glorifying a terrorist and terrorism”, promptly cancelled the proposed talk with Pakistan foreign minister, which would have anyways not gone anything beyond an exchange of diplomatic courtesies, sources said.
