SRINAGAR: Suspected attackers fatally shot a police officer, his wife and their daughter in Indian-occupied Kashmir, police said Monday.
Police said the attackers entered officer Fayaz Ahmad’s home in the southern Tral area late Sunday and fired indiscriminately at those inside.
Ahmad was killed immediately, while his wife died a few hours later in a hospital. Their 23-year-old daughter died in a hospital early Monday.
In a statement, police labelled the incident a “terror attack.”
Ahmad was a so-called special police officer, a lower-ranked police official recruited mainly for intelligence gathering and counterinsurgency operations. His son works in the Indian military’s counterinsurgency unit.
The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety. Freedom fighters have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989.
Most Muslim Kashmiris support the goal that the territory be united either under Pakistan’s rule or as an independent country.
New Delhi deems the freedom movement to be a Pakistan-sponsored campaign. Pakistan denies the charge, and most people in Kashmir call it a legitimate freedom struggle.
Tens of thousands of civilians, fighters and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
