Sopore: A councillor of municipal committee Sopore associated with the BJP and a personal security officer (PSO) of another councillor were killed, while one more councillor was injured, after suspected militants opened fire at them outside the office of municipal committee Sopore in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Monday afternoon.
Eyewitnesses said that some unknown persons opened fire at around 1 pm and left three persons with bullet injuries, after which they escaped from the spot.
The three injured were lying in a pool of blood and were shifted to hospital where two of them, one councillor and one PSO, succumbed while the third injured was shifted to Srinagar for advanced treatment.
The deceased councillor was identified as Reyaz Ahmad Peer, son of Ghulam Nabi Peer of Ningle Sopore, and PSO Shafqat Nazir Khan who is a special police officer (SPO), son of Nazir Ahmad Khan, resident of Mundji Sopore, while the injured councillor was identified as Shams ud din Peer of Sopore.
Local sources said that the deceased councillor was associated with the BJP. They said that the slain cop was PSO of another councillor, Masrat Kar, who is safe.
Superintendent of Police (SP) police district Sopore, Sudhanshu Verma, who recently joined in Sopore, said that two militants were behind the attack and a search to nab them was on. He said this while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the wreath-laying ceremony at Police Lines Sopore.
Locals said that soon after the attack, teams of police, army and CRPF reached the spot and launched a search to nab the attackers.
Sources said that there was a meeting of all councillors and other officials of municipal committee Sopore when the militants opened their guns. Initially it was said that the militants took shelter in a building of a private school or in the nearby Sub-Divisional Hospital (SDH) Sopore, but after searches nothing was found.
The office of the municipal committee Sopore is on the Sopore-Kupwara road close to the SDH and the Welcon educational institution Sopore.
Meanwhile, an official told news agency GNS that National Conference leader Irshad Rasool Kar, his sister Masrat Rasool Kar, and other Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and councillors were safe and had been accommodated in safer places by police.

Reader correspondent