Army soldiers during a search operation to flush out the militants after a firing incident, at Bemina in Srinagar, on Friday

SRINAGAR: Terrorists fatally shot a 29-year-old police constable from point blank range in Srinagar’s Batamaloo on Sunday, ending a short-lived lull in J&K after 12 civilians and 10 armed forces personnel were killed in a spate of terror attacks and encounters last month.
Constable Tausif Ahmad was targeted around 8pm near his residence at SD Colony in Batamaloo, a police officer said. The critically injured cop was declared dead on arrival at SMHS Hospital.
A clutch of political parties, including Farooq Abdullah’s NC and Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP, condemned the attack on an unarmed cop. “No words of condemnation would be enough! May Allah grant him a place in Jannat. Our hearts go out to his family and friends at this time of grief,” NC tweeted.
People’s Conference president Sajad Lone termed the killing “an addition to the army of orphans and widows”.
In September, a 25-year-old police officer taking a detained person to a hospital for a check-up was shot dead at Khanyar in downtown Srinagar. Sub-inspector Arshad Ahmad Mir’s killing was caught on camera, with CCTV footage showing a lone terrorist approaching him from behind and pumping three bullets into the back of his head.
Three months earlier, on June 27, Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists had barged into the house of special police officer Fayaz Ahmad in Pulwama’s Awantipora and opened fire indiscriminately, killing him and his wife. The couple’s injured daughter died the next morning.
The Pulwama incident came five days after police inspector Parvaiz Ahmad Dar was shot and killed while on his way to pray in a mosque in Srinagar’s Nowgam. Union home minister Amit Shah visited Dar’s family during his recent visit to Kashmir.