Firoz Dar, one of the six policemen killed in militant ambush in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir Firoz Dar, one of the six policemen killed in militant ambush in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir

Six policemen, including a Sub-Inspector, were killed as militants ambushed a police party in Achabal in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir. SHO Firoz Dar, a resident of Pulwama, was among the casualties as he fell to indiscriminate firing from militants.

Director General of Police S P Vaid told PTI that a driver and four other policemen who were on a routine round in jeep were targeted by the militants.

Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Taiba is believed to be behind the attack, a senior police official told the news agency, adding they wanted to take revenge of the Kulgam encounter in which their local commander Junaid Mattoo was killed by security forces. The bodies of Mattoo and two other terrorists have not been recovered so far. Local combing operations are going on.

The Valley has been prone to heavy infiltration of militants from across the Pakistan side of the Line of Control in recent months. Earlier this month, the army said while 22 infiltration bids were foiled by security forces along the LoC this year, 38 militants were neutralised. “The relentless operations by the security forces have defeated the desperate attempts by Pakistan and its agents to spread terror in Jammu and Kashmir during the holy month of Ramzan,” an army official had then said.

In 2015, 28 infiltration attempts had taken while compared to a total of 88 such attempts last year. Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre had earlier said in Parliament that a total of 116 illegal trespassing cases along the India-Pak border in Jammu and Kashmir were reported in 2015 and 2016, including 88 last year. A total of 59 Army personnel have lost their lives in counter-terror operations in J&K since 2016.

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