Stone throwers attacked the security forces on Saturday when they were de-inducting after winding up the cordon-and-search operations at Heff-Chillipora village in South Kashmir's Shopian district.
Despite Army Chief Bipin Rawat issuing a strong warning, stone-pelting incidents during anti-terror operations continue to pose a major challenge for the security forces in the strife-torn Kashmir valley.
Stone throwers attacked the security forces on Saturday when they were de-inducting after winding up the cordon-and-search operations at Heff-Chillipora village in South Kashmir's Shopian district.
Six CRPF men were injured and their mobile bunker turned turtle after driver lost the control over his vehicle when stone throwers attacked them with rocks and bricks.
"Stone pelting took place today also. It was a major one, and left six of our men injured. CRPF and J&K police controlled it. Some boys were also injured," Zulfikar Hassan, Inspector General of CRPF (Operations), told DNA.
Police said acting on specific intelligence inputs, a joint team of the Army, CRPF and police cordoned off the Chillipora village and launched the search operation on Friday evening. During the cordon, militants fired on the search party and carried out another attack on a police party, which was repulsed by the cops.
Cordon was extended to some more areas in the night but the militants could not be traced. Sources said the militants might have jumped the cordon and escaped to safety prompting the security forces to call off the operation on Saturday morning.
Police said when the security forces were retreating, a gang of stone-pelters surfaced near Heff village and attacked a CRPF posse. Such was the intensity of the stone pelting that the driver of the CRPF vehicle lost control and the vehicle turned turtle.
"It (stone pelting) is posing a major challenge. Local administration has taken certain measures, including the imposition of section 144 CRPC (prohibitory restrictions in the areas in three kilometre radius). We are in discussion with Jammu and Kashmir police as how best we can face the challenge," said Hassan.
However, police said there was no stone pelting during the anti-terror operation and the security forces were attacked when they were retreating.
"We had ensured that there is no stone pelting during the cordon and search operation (CASO). It happened when forces were retreating to the base, and that too in Heff village and not in Chillpora village, where the CASO was conducted," said a senior police officer.
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