CRPF inspector killed in militant attack in J&K

Jammu: In fresh bloodletting in the Jammu region, a CRPF inspector was killed when militants opened fire on a patrol party in Udhampur district on Monday.

A joint patrol team of the CRPF and the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the local police was attacked by terrorists around 3:30 pm in the remote Dudu area of Basantgarh, officials said.

Inspector Kuldeep Kumar, 54, of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) belonging to the 187th Battalion was hit by a bullet and later succumbed to injuries while being taken to hospital, they said. Kumar hailed from Haryana.

A police spokesman said that the exchange of fire took place between terrorists and joint parties of police and CRPF during the area domination patrol at Chill village of Dudu.

"In the encounter, one inspector of CRPF suffered bullet injuries and attained martyrdom. (The anti-terrorist) operation continues," he said.

His mortal remains were being brought to district headquarters for postmortem. The terrorists fled the scene after a strong retaliation by the joint patrolling party, they said, adding reinforcements have been rushed to the area and a search operation launched to track down and neutralise the militants. (PTI)