‘Serving TA soldier could have been actual target’

Rajouri, Apr 23:  Security forces and sister agencies, engaged in investigation of Rajouri terror killing, believed that the serving soldier of Territorial Army (TA) could have been the actual target of terrorists who killed a government employee in Shahdara village of Rajouri on Monday evening.

The TA soldier is a brother of the deceased employee.

Deceased Muhammad Razaq was serving in ICDS as Junior Assistant and was present inside the house along with his younger brother Tahir, who is a serving TA soldier.

Family members, while sharing details, said that both the brothers and some women were in the house when two armed men entered the house and asked them to prepare a meal for them.

“It was the moment when they (members of family) sensed trouble and the son serving in the Territorial Army ran out of house,” said members of the family, adding that the armed men instantly shot at the other son Razaq, who died on the spot.

“One of the armed men started to follow the TA soldier and chased him for several hundred meters,” they said, adding that the armed men fired indiscriminately on the running TA soldier. Some bullet marks are visible on walls of a house, located at a distance of several hundred meters away from the attack site.

“The circumstances indicated that this could be a planned attack and the TA soldier could have been the target,” said official sources. They added that one of the attackers chased the TA soldier for a long distance, it showed that he (soldier) was being followed.