Jammu & Kashmir

Militants in Kashmir have sniper rifles, could use night vision, stealth to shoot high profile targets, say officials

Representative Photo.

Three sniper attacks have prompted armed forces to re-calibrate their strategy, reports suggest 

Srinagar: In the third death by a sniper rifle, a CISF official was killed at Nowgam on the outskirts of Srinagar on Saturday morning. With this death, the armed forces have a new worry, a highly skilled sniper group that can hit targets in the dark of the night, officials say.

As per reports, the armed forces and their intelligence units in Jammu and Kashmir suspect that a few highly skilled snipers could be active in the Valley, after an Army soldier and two paramilitary personnel were killed in long-range stealth attacks this week.

Snipers who can hide at a single spot undetected for a long time and withdraw after making a kill could also pose a high threat to high profile targets in the valley, sources said.

The recent sniper attacks, reportedly by Jaish-e-Mohammed militants, has emerged as a new source of worry for the agencies in Kashmir Valley.

These attacks in close occurrence of each other in the past month have prompted the armed forces to re-calibrate their strategy.

The first such attack took place at Newa in Pulwama, on September 18, when a CRPF personnel was injured. Officials thought it to be a one-off strike till the recent spate of sniper attacks that claimed the lives of a Sashastra Seema Bal personnel, an Army personnel in Tral, and a CISF personnel in Nowgam.

Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Rajendra Prasad was shot in the face around 1 am, while guarding a power grid station, and succumbed to his injuries.

The militants using sniper rifle also carried out the attack on 42 RR camp in Luragam at around 9pm, killing sepoy Ngamsiamliana who was on guard duty, they said.

 

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