3 dead, several injured as terrorists target villagers in Rajouri

Rajouri/Jammu: Suspected terrorists opened fire on three houses of a particular community in a village in Jammu and Kashmir’s border district of Rajouri Sunday evening, killing three civilians and injuring several others, officials said.

Additional Director General of Police, Jammu Zone, Mukesh Singh said police, along with the Army and the CRPF, have launched a massive search operation to nab the two “armed men” behind the attack at Upper Dangri village, about eight kilometres from Rajouri town.

“Firing took place at three houses, separated at a distance of around 50 metres from each other. Two civilians have succumbed to injuries and four others are injured,” Singh said.

However, officials said one more injured civilian succumbed to injuries, taking the death toll to three.

Quoting eyewitnesses, the officials said two suspected terrorists appeared in the village around 7 pm and opened indiscriminate firing on three houses and fled.

“The firing ended within 10 minutes. First, they attacked a house in the Upper Dangri and then they moved to 25 meters away and shot several persons there. They also fired on another house 25 meters away from the second house while fleeing the village,” an official said.

He said seven persons were injured in the firing and condition of three of them was stated to be critical.

The deceased have been identified as Satish Kumar (45), Deepak Kumar (23) and Pritam Lal (57), the official said, adding the critically injured are being airlifted to Jammu for specialised treatment.

The injured have been identified Shishu Pal (32), Pawan Kumar (38), Rohit Pandit (27), Saroj Bala (35), Ridham Sharma (17) and Pawan Kumar (32), he said.

Medical Superintendent of Government Medical College (GMC) Rajouri, Dr Mehmood, said 10 people injured in the firing were brought to the hospital.

Three of them were declared brought dead, he added.

He said the injured have multiple bullet wounds.

Deeraj Kumar, sarpanch of Dangri, said gunshots were heard around 7 pm and after some time their intensity increased.

Later, I received calls that there was firing by terrorists, he added.

Kumar said it was after a long time that targeted killings were carried out in the area.

He termed the incident as a major security lapse.

There was already a threat perception and searches too were conducted in some of areas of the district, he added.