Bullet-riddled bodies of missing SPOs found

JAMMU: The bullet-riddled bodies of two Special Police Officers (SPOs) were recovered from Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district early Thursday, a day after they went missing from the remote Dachhan area and terrorists targeted a CRPF checkpost in Kulgam, officials said.

The slain personnel’s service weapons — an INSAS rifle and a .303 rifle along with some magazines and ammunition — were missing and are believed to have been taken away by terrorists, officials said. Empty cartridges of Pakistani-origin armour-piercing steel-core ammunition were recovered from the scene, they said.

The incident took place at an altitude of 8,858 feet between Deharna and Kiyar villages when the SPOs were heading to Basnand.

“A massive operation is underway to identify, track and neutralise the assailants,” an official said.

The two SPOs have been identified as Babi Chand (57) and Rashpal Kumar (45). Posted with the Special Operations Group of the local police at Kiyar village in Dachhan, they went missing on Wednesday while travelling from their camp to an Army post for patrolling duty at Deharna-Marwah.

The two SPOs were locals and were aware of the topography of the area, an official said. Their mobile phones were initially reachable but were later switched off.

Security forces rushed reinforcements and deployed specialised teams with drones and sniffer dogs early on Thursday to scan the inaccessible forest stretches around Kiyar and the route towards Deharna-Marwah.