Wounds of Bijbehera were still fresh when terrorists struck again and killed two policemen, including an officer, in a shoot and scoot attack in the busy marketplace of poll-bound Anantnag in south Kashmir on Saturday.

This is the second terror attack in less than 24 hours in Anantnag district. On Friday afternoon, militants ambushed a Srinagar-bound Border Security Force (BSF) convoy at Bijbehera town killing three soldiers and injuring six others before fleeing the spot.

Police said a group of heavily-armed militants surfaced near the general bus stand of Anantnag on Saturday morning and fired indiscriminately on a police party which was on a routine duty.

Two policemen were seriously injured and were immediately rushed to the hospital where both of them were declared dead by the doctors. The slain have been identified as assistant sub-inspector Bashir Ahmad and constable Reyaz Ahmad.

The militants were also caught on camera while fleeing the spot after unleashing the bloodbath. Shortly after the attack, the pictures of militants walking down the road with ease went viral. One of the militants was seen carrying an airbag which probably was used to conceal the AK-47 riffle which he was holding in one hand. It was, however, not known who clicked the picture of the militants.

"We are in a process of the identifying the militants. It (the outfit to which these militants belong) can only be established once the militants are identified," Nitesh Kumar, deputy inspector general of police, south Kashmir range, told dna.

Panic gripped the area after the attack with people running helter skelter for safety. Eyewitnesses said the area was bustling with activity when the militants carried out the audacious attack.

"Initially, we thought that a tyre has burst. But when there were repeated gunshots, we lied down on the road. It is a very busy area and there is always a grid lock. We could not judge what happened," said Mohammad Imran, a resident of Mattan.

Security forces reinforcements were immediately rushed to the spot to cordon off the area in a bid to hunt down the ultras. "Search and cordon operation has been started in the area," said a police officer.

This is the second major attack in Anantnag in the last 24 hours and fourth in Kashmir valley in the last 12 days. Heavily- armed militants ambushed the Border Security Force (BSF) convoy in a broad day light on Friday leaving three soldiers dead and six others injured one of them seriously in the willow rich town of Bijbehera in south Kashmir's Anantnag district.

On May 23 militants carried out two sensational shoot and scoot attacks leaving three policemen including an officer dead in the summer capital city of Srinagar. On May 25 terror revisited the Kashmir valley again when militants launched two attacks leaving two people including a cop dead at two different places in Kupwara and Pulwama districts.

The attack has come three days after J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti filed her nomination papers for the assembly by elections from Anantnag constituency. Election commission has deferred the Anantnag polls to June 22 from June 19 earlier.

The broad day attacks in Anantnag and Bijbehera have sent shivers down the security establishment as they fear that it could affect the campaigning and the turnout. Security forces believe that the attack was aimed at instilling fear among the voters. Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani has already called for the poll boycott in Anantnag.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said the attacks once again show the desperate levels to which the militants can go to disrupt peace and normalcy in the state. "Violence is a zero sum game which does not solve any problem but gives rise to more complexities," she said.

Batting for dialogue, Mehbooba said the perpetrators of bloodbath must realise that it is not through the gun and grenade that political problems are resolved.

"Dialogue and reconciliation are the only options for making headway in finding a solution. Hundreds of civilians, security forces personnel, policemen and militants have been killed in the state over the past more than two decades of turmoil leaving behind a trail of tragedies for the victim families," she said.