NEW DELHI, Mar 30: The death toll in the militant attack on a municipal committee meeting in Sopore went up to three on Tuesday with one more municipal councillor who sustained bullet wounds succumbing to his injuries in hospital.
The councillor, Shams-ud-Din Peer, who had suffered multiple bullet wounds, succumbed to his injuries at the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital in Srinagar during the night, officials said.
Apart from Peer, another councillor and a policeman have been killed in the Sopore attack.
Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar said the policemen guarding the councillors “failed to retaliate to the fire of militants.” He admitted that the four personal security officers (PSOs) guarding the councillors “failed to timely retaliate and foil the attack”.
“There has been a security lapse. Had the four PSOs retaliated, the militants would not have succeeded in their efforts,” he said.
All the four policemen have been suspended after the incident.
He agreed that there was no additional deployment made for the meeting but that was because the Municipal Committee chairman, Sopore, “had not informed about the Monday’s meeting,” targeted by the militants later.
The IGP said an overground worker of the militants had been arrested. “The arrested youth has revealed that the attack was planned by a local Lashkar-e-Taiba and a foreign militant,” he said.
Kumar has asked all vehicles plying in J&K with non-J&K registration plates to register within 15 days with the transport authority of the Union Territory. “Militants were using such vehicles to target the security forces,” he added.
(Manas Dasgupta)
