Kishtwar: Two Special Police Officers who had gone missing from Kishtwar district have been found shot dead. They disappeared on Wednesday from the border area between Marwah and Dachhan.
Officials said their weapons were missing when the bodies were recovered.
Hours before that, suspected terrorists opened fire on a security checkpoint in the Akhran area near Mir Bazar in south Kashmir's Kulgam district. Three Central Reserve Police Force personnel were injured.
It is the third terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir since July, and the second targeting security personnel.
Special Police Officers are recruited from local youth and give the police ground knowledge and local intelligence. Complaints that they lack adequate weapons and protective gear have surfaced repeatedly at the local level.
Attacks have risen in the hill districts of the Jammu region over recent months, with search operations under way in parts of Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban.
Security agencies have begun an investigation and combing operations are on in the forested areas around the recovery site. Marwah and Dachhan are remote border areas of Kishtwar district. The two SPOs were reported missing from there on Wednesday. Their bodies were recovered after security agencies launched a search. They had gunshot wounds and their weapons were not at the site.
The same day, a checkpoint near Mir Bazar in Kulgam's Akhran area came under fire and three CRPF personnel were injured.
Beyond what officials have confirmed, no further details are available at this stage.
The killings come as the Union Territory's security apparatus is already under scrutiny over the Nongshum and Sunurok killings in Manipur and a string of attacks in the Kashmir valley this year.