Five cops, two bank employees killed as militants attack cash van in Kashmir

Mangalore Today News Network

Srinagar, May 01, 2017 : Five policemen and two bank employees were killed on Monday after unidentified militants attacked a cash van of Jammu and Kashmir Bank in southern Kulgam district.

Sources said a group of heavily armed militants had laid a naka near Pombai village of Kulgam and as soon the bank cash van reached the spoter at aroind 4.25 pm, it was stopped. “Before the policemen could understand the situation, the militants started indiscriminate firing on the van, resulting in death of five police guards and two bank employees,” they said.

The militants, they said, fled with service rifles of the slain cops. “The militants had actually planned to loot the weapons and they found the cash van as easy target. It wasn’t immediately known how much cash the militants looted from the van,” sources added.

Kashmir has witnessed a surge in bank looting cases ever since demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 last year.

On December 15, militants had looted around Rs 11 lakh from a branch of J&K Bank in Pulwama district. Earlier on December 8, militants had looted Rs ten lakh after forcing their entry into the same bank in Arihal, Pulwama.

Prior to that on November 21, Lashker-e-Toiba militants robbed a bank in Chrar-e-Sharief area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district, decamping with nearly Rs 13 lakh cash.

Courtesy:DHNS