CRPF jawans chasing protesters throwing stones on them during a protest at Arwani village of Anantnag district... Read More

SRINAGAR: Displaying unprecedented savagery and viciousness, Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists mangled the faces of six policemen, including one officer riddling their faces with bullets at Thajiwara village in Achabal town of Anantnag district on Friday.

The attack took place within hours of the killing of a top LeT militant, Junaid Mattoo, elsewhere in Anantnag district. Heavily armed terrorists attacked a police party and butchered the cops, including the SHO of Achabal police station, Feroz Ahmad Dar.

The policemen were found with their faces mutilated beyond recognition as the terrorists fired at them even after they were dead, all over the bodies, including their faces. A senior police officer said this was the first such terror attack on the security forces since the advent of militancy in Kashmir in 1990.

LeT claimed responsibility for the killings. Apart from SHO Dar, the five other cops killed and mutilated were constables Tasveer Ahmad, Sharaz Ahmad, Shariq Ahmad, Mohammad Asif, and a special police officer, Sabzar Ahmad.

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Sources said they were on barricade duty at Thajiwara in Achabal following inputs of terrorist movement in the area.

Nearly one dozen heavily armed terrorists arrived and outgunned the cops, killing and disfiguring them as a warning to other policemen, taking away their weapons, an intelligence source said.

The attack was apparently in retaliation of the killing of Mattoo and another LeT terrorist in a firefight in Arwani village of Bijebehara in Anantnag district of south Kashmir on Friday.

Mattoo, according to intelligence agencies, had on Thursday killed police constable Sajjad Ahmad at Kulgam, who was vacationing at home. Another constable, Shazad Dilwar, of Bandipora, was killed on Srinagar ’s arterial Airport Road by terrorists in a car.

Police said Mattoo was also involved in an attack in which three policemen, including an officer, was killed last year.

A joint team of the Army, Jammu & Kashmir police and CRPF cordoned off Arwani village following a specific input about the presence of three Lashkar terrorists in the area on Friday morning. Soon, some villagers gathered and pelted stones on security forces. Khar, a youth, was hit by a bullet in the clashes and succumbed to his injuries.

While the forces killed Junaid and Muzamil Ahmad, a third terrorist seemed to have escaped under the cover provided by the stone-pelters. Authorities suspended mobile internet services in the Valley to prevent mobilisation of stonepelters and mobs.

“Friday’s killing and mutilation of policemen has had a demoralising effect on cops,” an officer who did not want to be named told TOI late on Friday.



In Video: Terrorists attack police party in J&K's Anantnag, 6 personnel martyred