A senior police official paying tribute to the police personnel who were killed by suspected militants in their loot of a bank cash van, in Kulgam district of south Kashmir. (Photo: AP)

Srinagar: Five Jammu and Kashmir policemen and two bank employees were killed when militants attacked a cash van in southern Kulgam district on Monday afternoon.

Hizb-ul-Mujahedin, the formidable Kashmiri militant outfit, while owning responsibility said it, however, did not kill the bank employees. “They were killed by the CRPF personnel accompanying them”, the Hizb’s ‘Operational’ spokesman Burhan-ud-Din was quoting as saying by local news agency CNS.

The officials in Srinagar said that the cash van of Jammu and Kashmir Bank was intercepted by the gunmen outside Kulgam's Pombai village. The van was heading towards Anantnag town after unloading cash at the bank's Nehama branch, they said and added that the gunmen opened indiscriminate fire, resulting into the death of five policemen including a sub-inspector and two bank security guards.

A report from Kulgam said that the victims were taken to the district hospital at Kulgam but doctors declared them brought dead. “They had sustained multiple bullet wounds and had died due to blood loss”, said a hospital official.

The assailants who had suddenly appeared from a roadside apple orchard took the service weapons of the policeman including four INSAS rifles and one AK 47 Rifle with them after committing the crime, the police officials said. The security reinforcements launched a massive manhunt for them.

A statement issued by the police in the evening said that the Hizb-ul-Mujahedin terrorists including Omar Majeed and his two associates attacked the cash delivery van. “In the attack five policemen and two security guards of the J&K Bank were martyred. To pay homage to these martyrs, a wreath laying ceremony was held in the District Police Lines during which IGP SJM Gillani led civil, police and security force officers and jawans in laying floral wreaths on their mortal remains,” the police statement said.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (South Kashmir range) SP Pani said that preliminary investigations had revealed that it was a group of three militants being led by Hizb’s local commander Omar Majeed which attacked the van at 4.15 pm. “The gunmen after stopping the cash van asked those on board to get down. They found the van empty and apparently in fit of anger shot the policemen and the bank guards in cold blood,” another police official who requested anonymity said.

The slain men have been identified as ASI Bashir Ahmed Dar, Selection Grade Constables Farooq Ahmed Bhat and Muhammad Qasim and constables Muzaffar Ahmed Bhat and Ashfaq Ahmed Hajam and J&K Bank security guards Javed Ahmed Bhat and Muzaffar Ahmed Laway.

Though the suspected militants have looted cash from different branches of mainly Jammu and Kashmir Bank in the Valley on several occasions in the past, it is for the first time that the bank employees or the policemen escorting them in a cash van have been targeted.

Hizb spokesman Burhan-ud-Din told the news agency that the attack was carried out by a “special squad” of the outfit which besides inflicting casualties snatched four service rifles from the policemen "We didn’t attack the vehicle with an intent to loot the cash. We have enough cash. We condemn the killing of two bank employees and want to clarify that they were shot dead by CRPF personnel and not by mujahedin,” he claimed adding that militants “can never target innocent Kashmiris”.

The policemen and bank employees were killed on a day when Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, chaired a high-level meeting in New Delhi to discuss Jammu and Kashmir and the situation following the killing of 25 CRPF troopers by Maoists in Chhattisgarh.

Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, strongly condemned the killing of five police personnel and two bank officials by “unknown assailants”.In a statement, she said the officials were on duty to disburse and collect cash at a local bank branch and their killing reflects the dangerous criminalisation turn the society is taking. He also condemned the killing of two soldiers in cross LoC fire in the Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district and the death of a civilian in Sunday’s grenade attack in Srinagar. She said, “I have been warning of the ill effects of violence time and again. I appeal the civil society to rise to the occasion to make the future of our younger generation peaceful”.

In the evening, militants opened fire at the vehicle of Deputy Superintendent of Police, Farooq Ahmed, at Dangerpora in Pulwama district but he and his security guards escaped unhurt. "The security personnel escorting the officer returned the fire, forcing the militants to flee," said the police here.

In the evening, militants opened fire at the vehicle of Deputy Superintendent of Police, Farooq Ahmed, at Dangerpora in Pulwama district but he and his security guards escaped unhurt. "The security personnel escorting the officer returned the fire, forcing the militants to flee," said the police here.