3-yr-old girl among 4 hurt in militant attack in Sopore

A little girl and her father were among four people injured in an attack by suspected militants in north Kashmir’s Sopore, police officials said on Saturday.

Gunmen opened fire after barging into the house of a prominent fruit grower, Haji Hamidullah, at Dangerpora in Sopore on Friday night, injuring his son Arshad Ahmad, three-year-old granddaughter Asma and two men identified as Mohammad Ramzan and Mohammad Ashraf.

While all the three men have been shifted to Bone and Joint Hospital in Srinagar, the girl has been taken to Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences.

“They are all stable. The girl is in shock,” said Sopore’s superintendent of police Javid Iqbal. He said the gunmen may have targeted the fruit grower’s house for doing business in the Sopore fruit market.

Kashmir is witnessing a spontaneous shutdown after the security lockdown in the valley since August 5 when the special status of the state was effectively revoked and the region split into two union territories-- Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

A few days ago, the fruit market in Sopore, the largest in north Kashmir, had started functioning for a few hours every day in the morning, but trading has stopped again.

The SP said the gunmen accosted Ramzan and Ashraf at Dangerpora on Friday night and asked the men, who both work in the fruit business, to accompany them to the house of Hamidullah.

“They abducted the two persons and forced them to ask the family to open the door. Once inside there was a commotion. Haji sahib was offering prayers somewhere. The women of the house raised a hue and cry, prompting the terrorists to open fire and flee from the spot,” he said.

The officer said that they had some information on the attackers. “They were speaking Kashmiri. We will soon identify them,” he said.