Three policemen killed in Kashmir terror attacks

Srinagar: Three policemen were gunned down and a policeman and a former militant were left critically injured in three terror attacks -- the first major strike in the Valley since the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed government came to power in March.

A police officer said the guerrillas attacked a three-member police party at Amshipora village in Shopian district with automatic weapons, killing all of them on the spot.

"A police party of three had gone to Amshipora village in connection with a crime investigation when militants attacked them with automatic weapons," he said.

"A head constable and two constables were killed in this attack."

The Shopian attack came barely hours after the guerrillas fired at and critically injured a police officer in Baramulla district.

The police officer had boarded a bus at Mirgund and the militants too boarded the same bus. They then shot him twice. The officer was supposed to alight at Parihaspur, but the militants didn't allow the bus to stop.

The bus finally stopped nearly 30 km away, where the militants deboarded and fled. It was then that the terrified bus passengers raised the alarm.

In the third incident, militants on Monday afternoon shot at and critically injured a former militant Rafeek Ahmed Dada outside a bank branch in Tral town of south Kashmir in Pulwama district.

The injured was shifted to hospital in critical condition, a police officer told IANS.