Nowgam attack: Slain policeman was to get married after EID-ul-Fitr

A policeman who was killed in militant attack in the Nowgam area of Srinagar on Thursday was scheduled to get married after Eid- ul- Fitr.

Rameez Raja, 30, a resident of Ara Khashipora in the Dialgam area of Anantnag according to his relatives had joined Jammu and Kashmir Police some five years in place of his father who died of Tumour.

One of his relatives said that Rameez got engaged to a girl who belongs to the Nowgam area of Shangus in Anantnag sometime before and was scheduled to get married after Eid.

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Rameez has left behind his younger brother Aaqib (27) and a widow mother Naseema (55).

His friends recalled Rameez as a kind human being who always helped needy persons.

"We met two days before and he told me to be ready for grand party on my marriage after EID, but none of us was aware that it will be our last meet," Nadeem Ahmad one of his friends said.

Meanwhile hundreds of people from his native village and its adjacent areas reached Ara Khashipora and participated in his funeral prayers.

He was laid to rest in his native village amid sobs and tears.

Rameez was killed after suspected militants attacked the residence of BJP leader in the Nowgam area of Srinagar.

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However Inspector General of Police Kashmir range Vijay Kumar said four Lashkar-e-Toiba militants including two from Srinagar carried out the attack on the guard post of the house of senior BJP leader Muhammad Anwar Khan in Aribagh, Nowgam area in which a police man got killed. He also confirmed that the militants took away a riffle as well from the spot.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the wreath laying ceremony of slain cop Rameez Raja, who was deployed at the guard post outside the resident residence of BJP leader, the IGP said: “After examining the CCTV footage, one burqa clad militant knocks the door and when the door is opened, two others fire indiscriminately and the fourth one comes and takes away the riffle.”

He said initially “we though the first one wearing burqa was a female, but after investigating the leads thoroughly, he was the male militant who had changed his voice to deceive the sentry on duty.”

The IGP said two of the four militants involved in the act have been identified as Shahid Khursheed and Obaid Shafi. “Both belong to Lashkar-e-Toiba. The identity of two others is being ascertained who are also believed to be from Lashkar,” he said.

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The Kashmir police chief anti-militancy operations will further be intensified and those involved in the act will be “neutralized.” “We had launched a Cordon and Search Operation (CASO) in Chanapora in the morning. We have been conducting the searches since January onwards but haven’t been successful in catching the militants’ active in Srinagar. We will work out on human and technical inputs further and catch them soon.”

He said that one of the militants involved in today’s incident Shahid Khursheed of Chanapora is already a categorized militant with the police. KNO

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