Srinagar, June 21 (KNO) : A day after the internal probe conducted by the CRPF into the June 12 fidayeen attack that left five CRPF men and a police officer dead, revealed that the slain militant used steel coated bullets, the startling disclosure has forced the entire CRPF top brass into a huddle to mull remedial measures to ensure no fatal causalities to the force, a top CRPF officer posted in New Delhi, told KNO. He revealed that the bullet proof shields will be upgraded and modified to face the steel-coated bullets.
The officer said that the preliminary findings into the June 12 suicide attack at KP Road, Anantnag revealed that the slain militant, who belonged to Jaish-e-Muhammad, used armour piercing bullets, to inflict maximum damage to the security forces. Probe had revealed that the bullets had pierced through the bullet proof shields causing fatal injuries to the CRPF men.
The Station Police Officer (SHO) Saddar, Anantnag, Arshid Khan, who rushed to the spot to repulse the attack, also sustained grave bullet injuries after which he succumbed at AIIMS Delhi after being treated in Srinagar. Police sources told KNO that Arshid was also hit by steel-coated bullet near his chest. “He had multiple bullet injuries on his body,” sources in the police said.
A top CRPF officer, wishing not to be named said that 18 bullets were recovered from the magazine of the AK-47 used by the Jaish militant at KP Road, Anantnag and “all were steel-coated”. Pertinently, steel coated bullets were made by China and are banned across the globe. “We are taking a series of remedial measures and one of them is modify the bullet proof shield used on the chest and back by the CRPF men,” the officer told KNO.
He said that the Director General of CRPF R Bhatnagar has sought a detailed report over the incident and the report of probe and there is every likely hood that he will soon chair a meeting in this regard at New Delhi where top CRPF officers from the State will also participate. “The meeting will deliberate upon the remedial measures to be taken by the force to protect its personnel from similar attacks where Jaish uses armour piercing bullets,” the officer told KNO.
Pertinently, it was after the December 31, Lethpora, CRPF camp attack in Pulwama, where Jaish militants had used the steel-coated bullets that the outfit used similar bullets against CRPF in Anantnag.(KNO)