A police official was shot dead by separatist guerrillas near a police station in this Jammu and Kashmir summer capital Friday, the day authorities removed a bunker of the paramilitary forces from the city centre Lal Chowk after almost two decades
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Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Suchpal Singh was shot from close range by unidentified gunmen near the Bagyaz police station where he was posted.
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"The injured ASI was removed to the SMHS hospital where doctors tried their best to revive him, but he succumbed to fatal gunshot wounds," a senior police officer told IANS.
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No separatist group has yet owned responsibility for the attack.
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Coincidentally, an over two-decade bunker of the Central Reserve Police Force was removed from Lal Chowk Friday morning. Local residents and shopkeepers had long been demanding the removal of the bunker.
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Separatist guerrillas had attacked the bunker over a dozen times. Its presence had made pedestrians and shopkeepers vulnerable to being caught in gunfights between the security forces and the guerrillas.
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"So far, we have removed 40 bunkers from different places and the process will continue as the situation improves," Minister of State for Home Nasir Aslam Wani told IANS.u00a0
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Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has been eagerly pursuing the cause for reducing the footprints of security forces in the state.
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He is also advocating revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from four districts of Srinagar, Badgam, Jammu and Samba to begin with.
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Senior army officials maintain that a kneejerk response to the sensitive AFSPA issue would be fraught with serious risks as long as peace is not consolidated.
