Three CRPF jawans killed, two injured in Jammu and Kashmir terror attack

The attack took place in north Kashmir's Sopore.

Security personnel stand guard at Sopore after three CRPF troopers were killed in a terrorist attack in J&K’s Baramulla district on April 18, 2020.

Three CRPF jawans were killed and two others injured in a militant attack in north Kashmir's Sopore area on Saturday afternoon.

A CRPF spokesman said the attack took place at around 5.30 p.m. when the personnel were withdrawing from a checkpoint duty at the Ahad Baba crossing area of Sopore in Baramulla district.

“Preliminary reports suggest the militants were on a motorbike and opened fire at a time when the personnel were boarding a mobile bulletproof vehicle. The militants fired from automatic rifles and fled the scene. It was a stray fire. Five jawans were hit by bullets at the spot,” the CRPF spokesman said.

Three jawans, identified as head constable Rajeev Sharma from Bihar, constable C. B. Bhakare from Maharashtra and constable Parma Satyapal Singh from Gujarat, succumbed to their injuries. They belonged to the CRPF's 179 Battalion. “The driver and another CRPF jawan were injured and shifted to a hospital,” the spokesman said.

The is second such attack in the past 24 hours. One CRPF jawan was injured in Pulwama on Friday evening in an attack on a checkpoint.

Police sources said it's investigating the role of the newly-formed The Resistance Front (TRF) in the attack. The outfit is believed to be working in tandem with the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).

Five TRF militants were killed in a gunfight in the Keran Sector on April 5 in Kupwara, in which five PARA troopers also died.