One person was killed and two others injured after unidentified gunmen opened fire at a BSNL showroom in north Kashmir’s Sopore town on Monday.
The security forces rushed to the Iqbal Market in Sopore, where the attack took place, and cordoned off the area.
The injured were rushed to the hospital and a search operation is underway to nab the gunmen, who are suspected to be militants.
One of the injured, Mohammad Rafiq (26), a resident of Handwara area of Kupwara district, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.
The two injured, Ghulam Mohammad Bhat (40) and Imtiyaz Ahmad Lone (30), both residents of Sopore township, were being treated upon, a police officer said.
The police officer said that it seemed to be an attack on telecom operators as militants had threatened them in the past. It was second such attack in less than 48 hours in Sopore area.
On the intervening night of May 23-24, suspected ultras had hurled a grenade at a residential compound where a mobile transmission tower was installed.
Today’s attack comes after terror group Lashkar-e-Islami’s warning to mobile operators in Sopore to shut the services.
Although officials were tight-lipped as to why the militants were targeting telecom installations, sources said the ultras were upset about “theft” of their communication equipment from mobile transmission towers in Sopore and surrounding areas earlier this month.
The militants had allegedly installed communication equipment atop the towers of private and PSU companies.
They had also put up posters warning them against selling recharge coupons and asked them to close the mobile towers.