SRINAGAR, May 4: Suspected militants today raided a police post guarding residential houses of minority Pandit families in Kashmir and snatched two service rifles of policemen deployed there, police said.
The weapons were snatched Friday afternoon at Padgachoo village of Shopian district, around 58 km south of capital Srinagar when the policemen manning a check-post had gone for Friday prayers, sources said.
The militants reportedly fired warning shots into the air while fleeing from the village to keep people at bay.
No militant group has claimed responsibility for the incident. But police say they have launched investigations.
An alert has been sounded across South Kashmir and a massive manhunt is underway to arrest the suspected militants and recover the arms.
A large portion of Kashmiri Pandits migrated from Kashmir to Jammu city and other states of India after the eruption of an armed uprising against Indian rule in the early nineties.
The local government in the Muslim-majority region had set-up security posts for their protection following various incidents of attack on them.