Off-duty cop found dead in paddy field in Kashmir’s Pulwama, seventh such targeted killing this year

In yet another incident of targeted killing in Jammu and Kashmir, the body of an off-duty police officer was found in the paddy fields near his residence in Pulwama after militants opened fire on him, officials stated on Saturday.

According to the statement, Sub-Inspector Farooq Ahmad Mir had left for home on Friday and was working in his paddy fields when militants opened fire on him using a pistol.

“Dead body of Farooq Ah Mir of Samboora Si(M) posted in IRP 23 BN was found in paddy fields near his home. Preliminary investigation reveals that he had left his home for work in his paddy fields yesterday in the evening, where he was shot dead by terrorists using a pistol,” Kashmir Zone Police wrote on Twitter.

This is the ninth time a cop has been killed in targeted attacks by militants in the valley in the past one year, and the seventh such instance when an off-duty police officer was killed.

Last month, militants killed a Jammu and Kashmir constable outside his house while he was reportedly taking his 9-year-old daughter to tuition class. While the officer died, the daughter survived after sustaining a bullet injury.

Apart from police officers, several civilians, mainly from the Kashmiri Pandit community, have been shot dead by militants in the last few months in a bid to derail the J&K administration’s push to bring back peace in the valley since the abrogation of the Article 370 in 2019. After the killing of 35-year-old Rahul Bhat in Chadoora town’s Tehsil office, massive protests broke out across the Union Territory with several Kashmiri Pandits threatening to resign from their government posts if adequate security was not provided to them by the local administration. Days after the protests, a Kashmiri woman high-school teacher was shot dead and a bank employee from Rajasthan was killed inside the bank.