During a wave of terror strikes in Jammu & Kashmir, a retired senior superintendent of police was shot and killed inside a mosque on Sunday morning in the Baramulla district of north Kashmir while making the call for prayers. The murder horrified the community.
Health officials reported that Mohammad Shafi Mir, 72, was shot with pellets from a 12-bore rifle while he was conducting the morning azaan prayer from the nearby mosque in Gantmulla hamlet, which is primarily regarded as a calm and non-military location.
Concerned citizens and security services expressed concern at the attack on the ex-police officer, which followed a string of deliberate killings of active Kashmiri police and army officers.
“Terrorists fired upon Shri Mohd Shafi, a retired police officer at Gantmulla, Sheeri #Baramulla, while praying Azan in the mosque and succumbed to injuries. Area has been #cordoned off. Further details awaited,” the J&K Police mentioned on X (formerly twitter).
Mobile internet connections in the twin districts were banned for a second day on Sunday, they claimed, while a search operation to find the terrorists who were escaping was still underway close to the scene of the ambush.
According to news agency ANI, which cited defense sources, army commander General Manoj Pande is scheduled to visit Jammu on Monday to assess the situation and talk about bolstering the counterterrorism grid even more.
The death of Mir on Sunday marked the fifth such murder in Kashmir this year of a police officer, either active or retired.
Doctors aware of the information indicated that an autopsy conducted at Medical College Baramulla revealed six pellet injuries on Mir’s body. “Four pellets have been retrieved during the post-mortem examination,” mentioned a senior doctor, who wanted to be quoted as anonymous. “It looks like an attack from 12 bore gun.”
Amod Nagpure, the SSP for Baramulla, would not answer calls or texts about the weapon used in the attack.
“He (Mir) used to call morning prayers in the mosque. Today when he was calling azaan (prayer), there was a big thud and then his voice stopped. After sometime, we came to know Mir sahib has been shot inside the mosque,” averred Ghulam Hassan, a close kin of Mir.
“Mir was very polite and a caring person. This killing should be properly investigated and those behind this killing should be punished.”
Hundreds of locals from the village and adjoining areas participated in Mir’s funeral. “I have no words express condemnation for this killing. How can a person be killed inside a mosque? This isn’t acceptable,” averred a person, supposedly Mir’s neighbour.
Mir leaves behind a wife and three kids, two boys and a girl.
Mehbooba Mufti, erstwhile chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir and president of the People’s Democratic Party tweeted: “One doesn’t know what to condemn more. Killing of five army jawans who laid their lives in the line of their duty or civilians tortured to death in the most barbaric way by those supposed to protect us from the enemy? Every life in J&K is in peril & GOI wants to brush everything under the carpet only because the ground reality will puncture their fake narrative. How long will this go on before the country wakes up?”
BJP state spokesperson Altaf Thakur said, “The sons of devil can’t even tolerate azaan as Muhammad Shafi, the retired SSP was killed while giving azaan in a masjid. Terror and terrorists have no religion”
