Handwara: Three paramilitary CRPF personnel were killed in a militant attack in Handwara in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Monday. A civilian, identified by some news agencies as a 14-year-old boy, was killed in what a police officer termed as “crossfire”.
The attack was carried out by militants near Wangam village on the Baramulla-Handwara road at about 5:30pm Monday when CRPF troops of 92nd Battalion had laid a naka on the road. Militants fired upon them from close range.
“Three CRPF men have been killed in the attack. It was an attack on a CRPF party and it was responded to effectively,” CRPF spokesman in Srinagar Pankaj Singh told news agency KNO.
The officer identified the CRPF men killed in the attack as Constable Santosh Mishra, Constable Chandra Shekhar and Ashwani Kumar Yadav.
In the exchange of fire, one civilian was also killed. He was identified, according to news agency GNS, as 14-year-old Hazmi Shafi Bhat, a student of 7th standard, resident of Khipora village.
“He along with other boys in the area had taken animals for grazing. While others fled, he could not as he was physically handicapped. He could not even properly talk and would occasionally fall down,” Mohammad Rayeez, his immediate neighbour, told GNS.
The boy’s uncle, Haji Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, said that the boy’s body was found near the site of the gunfight, which is almost half a kilometre from his residence. The family termed reports dubbing him as a militant as “very unfortunate.”
“He could not even properly walk or talk. How can he be a militant?” Bhat said.
A police officer said that the boy was killed in “crossfire”.
Soon after the attack, reinforcements of CRPF, army and police launched a cordon and search operation in several villages including Wangam, Palpora and other villages to nab the attackers. The area falls in Qaziabad under police district Handwara.
The attack comes a day after the commanding officer of army’s 21 RR, a major, two army soldiers and a sub-inspector of J&K Police were killed in a night-long encounter with militants in Chanjimulla village of Handwara.

Mushtaq Ahamd