A retired senior superintendent of police was shot dead inside a mosque on Sunday morning in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district while giving a call for prayers, a murder that shocked the region and came during a spree of terror attacks in Jammu & Kashmir.
Mohammad Shafi Mir, 72, was shot with pellets from a 12-bore gun, health officials said, while he was giving the morning azaan call from the neighbourhood mosque in Gantmulla village, an area largely considered peaceful and free from militancy.
The attack on the former police officer left locals and security agencies worried, and comes after a spate of targeted killings of serving Kashmiri police and army personnel.
In what has kept the Union territory on edge, three days earlier, a group of terrorists also ambushed an army convoy, killing four Rashtriya Rifles personnel, in Jammu’s Poonch. Three men picked up among a group of locals were later found dead, with their families alleging custodial torture and the incident triggering tensions.
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In Mir’s killing, locals said he sustained multiple injuries and died on the way to a hospital.
Soon after the murder, senior police and army officers reached the spot and started gathering details while forensics teams collected samples from the crime scene.
Police confirmed Mir was attacked while praying. “Terrorists fired upon Shri Mohd Shafi, a retired police officer at Gantmulla, Sheeri #Baramulla, while praying Azan in the mosque and succumbed to injuries. Area has been #cordoned off. Further details awaited,” the J&K Police said in a post on X (formerly twitter).
In Jammu, restrictions remained in place as a wreath-laying ceremony was on Sunday held in Rajouri for the four soldiers who lost their lives after being ambushed by terrorists in Poonch, officials said.
A search operation to track down the fleeing terrorists continued near the scene of the ambush, while mobile internet services remained suspended in the twin districts for the second day on Sunday, they said.
News agency ANI, citing defence sources, said army chief General Manoj Pande is likely to visit Jammu to review the situation and discuss further strengthening the counterterrorism grid on Monday.
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The region has also been on the edge since three of nine civilians taken in by questioning by the army were found dead, with their families alleging there were signs of torture on their bodies. The Indian Army said it had begun an internal inquiry, and the district administration too opened an inquiry, though no case had been lodged over the civilian deaths.
The state government has promised compensation and government jobs “on compassionate grounds” to family members of the three civilians.
Mir’s killing on Sunday was the fifth such murder of a serving or retired police officer in Kashmir this year.
On December 9, police constable Mohammad Hafiz Chad was attacked near his house at Hamdaniya Colony Bemina. He received serious injuries but survived in the attack.
On December 7, inspector Masroor Ahmad Wani, who was attacked on October 29 outside his house at Eidgah while playing cricket with local residents, succumbed at AIIMS Delhi.
On October 31, police head constable Ghulam Ahmad Dar was shot dead by terrorists near his house in North Kashmir’s Tangmarg area in Baramulla.
Recently police claimed to have arrested three persons who were involved in the attack on the police constable at Bemina Srinagar on December 9.
An autopsy at Medical College Baramulla, according to doctors aware of the details, said that Mir’s body had six pellet injuries. “Four pellets have been retrieved during the post-mortem examination,” said a senior doctor, who asked not to be named. “It looks like an attack from 12 bore gun.”
Baramulla SSP Amod Nagpure didn’t respond to calls or messages regarding the weapon used in the attack.
“He (Mir) used to call morning prayers in the mosque. Today when he was calling azaan (prayer), there was a big thud and then his voice stopped. After sometime, we came to know Mir sahib has been shot inside the mosque,” said Ghulam Hassan, a close relative of Mir.
“Mir was very polite and a caring person. This killing should be properly investigated and those behind this killing should be punished.”
Hundreds of locals from the village and adjoining areas participated in Mir’s funeral. “I have no words express condemnation for this killing. How can a person be killed inside a mosque? This isn’t acceptable,” said a person, who identified himself only as Mir’s neighbour.
Mir is survived by wife and three children (two sons and a daughter).
Political leaders too condemned the killing of the senior police officer.
Former chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir and president of the People’s Democratic Party, Mehbooba Mufti, condemned the killing and said the situation remains grim in the Union territory, contradicting the central government’s narrative.
In a series of statements on social media platform X, Mufti said: “One doesn’t know what to condemn more. Killing of five army jawans who laid their lives in the line of their duty or civilians tortured to death in the most barbaric way by those supposed to protect us from the enemy? Every life in J&K is in peril & GOI wants to brush everything under the carpet only because the ground reality will puncture their fake narrative. How long will this go on before the country wakes up?”
BJP state spokesperson Altaf Thakur in statement termed the killing as a barbaric act by those who have no religion. “The sons of devil can’t even tolerate azaan as Muhammad Shafi, the retired SSP was killed while giving azaan in a masjid. Terror and terrorists have no religion,” he said, adding that police should punish the culprits involved in the act sternly
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah expressed sadness over the incident. “Condemning such heinous acts unequivocally, they affirm that violence can never be tolerated in any form,” an NC spokesman said.
(With inputs from HTC in Jammu)