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Cops react in anger as militants kill 3 security personnel

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

Panic gripped Srinagar's famous Lal Chowk this afternoon when two Border Security Force personnel and a police constable were shot dead by militants.

There was total chaos with shopkeepers pulling down shutters and bystanders running for cover as gunfire rocked the city centre.

A senior police officer told rediff.com that militants shot at and killed Constable Mushtaq Ahmad at Madeina Chowk this afternoon. At the same time, another group of extremists struck near the UCO Bank's Lal Chowk branch, shooting two BSF personnel making purchases in a shop. The men were immediately rushed to hospital, but it was futile.

The killings were followed by a rocket attack on the heavily guarded Shaheed Gunj police station. The rocket missed the building and hit an adjacent mosque, which was extensively damaged.

Following these incidents, angry policemen came out on the streets, firing in the air with automatic weapons. They allegedly roughed up some people in Lal Chowk, smashed the windows of parked cars, and set some shops alight. Due to the disturbances, fire brigade personnel could not enter the area. The central veterinary hospital, which houses the office of the animal husbandry director, also caught fire. Later, however, fire tenders brought the fire under control.

Later, the area was sealed and the BSF mounted a search, subjecting shopkeepers to an identification parade.

Meanwhile, four soldiers were killed in a fierce exchange of automatic-weapons fire with Pakistani troops on the Line of Control at Mendhar in Poonch district last night.

Defence sources said Pakistani troops will return the body of one of the soldiers tomorrow at Chakla post in Palanwalla sector of Jammu district. It was at this same post that Indian troops had returned the bodies of five Pakistani soldiers killed in another skirmish.

Indian troops have already recovered the bodies of the other three slain soldiers.

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