SRINAGAR (TIP): Six policemen, including a Station House Officer of the Achabal police station, were killed when militants ambushed their vehicle at Thajiwara Achabal in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on June 16 (Friday) evening. Officials said that around 6:30 pm, Station House Officer, Achabal, Sub Inspector Firoz Ahmad Dar and five constables were in a Tata Sumo vehicle travelling towards Anantnag town when a group of at least five militants ambushed their vehicle and fired at the police party. In the attack, all the policemen were killed. Soon Army and police cordoned off the area but the militants escaped. The attack took place 17 km from the spot in Arwani where an encounter between militants and security forces was in progress and barely 5 km from the Army’s Khandru camp, one of the most fortified installations in south Kashmir.

Officials said that the militants took away rifles from the slain policemen. Before fleeing, the militants are believed to have disfigured the bodies of the cops by firing on them from close range.

J&K Director General of Police S P Vaid told The Indian Express that militants ambushed the vehicle of SHO Achabal at Thajiwara. “They fired at the policemen from very close range and later escaped with five AK-47 rifles,’’ Vaid said, adding that the militants were the local Lashkar-e-Toiba module operating in the area.