2 injured as burqa-clad militants open fire in Kashmir

The town witnessed serious disturbances over the brief fire exchange between militants and Special Operations Group (SOG).

“As such the police team tried to apprehend the suspected militants who were sitting in a sumo, one among them opened fire which created chaos in the area”, SP said.

He said that the incident happened at the main bus stand of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

In the post-shootout action, SOG started scanning the people around and detected a suspiciously burqa clad “woman” around. When they directed them to come down the vehicle, they fired indiscriminate and ran away from the spot.

The two injured civilians, including a woman, were taken to hospital and their condition was stated to be stable. “The police showed restraint as there were civilians in the area”. While the security personnel managed to arrest one, the other gave them the slip.

He said a “sharp-edged” weapon has been recovered from the possession of the arrested person, who has been identified as Tariq Ahmad Shiekh, a local resident. “The recovery has indeed thwarted the evil designs of the militants”, said SN Acharya, officiating defence spokesman at Jammu.