Three Central Reserve Police Force personnel were wounded on Wednesday afternoon when unidentified attackers on a motorcycle fired an AK-47 at a bridge guard party in Nawapora, near Mir Bazar, in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district. A senior police officer put the time of the attack at about 2.15 pm. The attackers fled after firing.
The injured are Constable Rakesh Dass, who has a leg injury, Constable Santosh Chadru, who has abdominal and spinal injuries, and Head Constable Somveer Singh, who was hit in the left arm. All three were taken to a hospital in Anantnag district and are under treatment. Two of them are said to be in critical condition.
What police and the force have said
A CRPF spokesperson confirmed the firing on the force's checkpoint at Kulgam and said operations were under way to catch those responsible. The senior police officer said search teams had been sent out. He also said one of the assailants is suspected to be a foreign terrorist linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
A source in the security establishment went further and said the attackers are believed to be associates of Lateef Bhat, an alleged operative of The Resistance Front, which is regarded as a Lashkar offshoot. According to that source, Bhat has been moving around the area with two foreign terrorists and appears to be behind this attack, as in two earlier ones. The report that carried these claims offered no evidence beyond unnamed sources, and no claim of responsibility was mentioned.
The earlier attacks the officials point to
On 22 July this year a 35-year-old Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel on Amarnath Yatra duty was shot dead; CCTV footage showed a suspected attacker carrying an AK-47, and The Resistance Front later claimed the killing. On 31 July two migrant workers from Chhattisgarh were killed in a separate attack in Kulgam. Security sources link Bhat to both July attacks.
Bhat is described as a local carpenter from Kulgam who went missing in November 2025 and is reported to have joined The Resistance Front. Sources say he was trained in the Kulgam and Shopian highlands and recruited by Sajjad Gul, a Pakistan-based designated terrorist. These details also come from unnamed security sources and have not been independently verified.
No arrests had been reported in the accounts available. The condition of the two critically injured personnel is the main open question, along with whether the search operation produces a contact with the group in the Kulgam area.
