The investigation into the killing of three policemen in a militant attack here on Monday has revealed the presence of three local militants, sources said. “We had information that three Srinagar youths had gone missing. There were apprehensions that they might have joined militants. Our apprehensions have come true,” a police officer told The Indian Express. The confirmation would mean the first instance of local boys joining militant ranks in the city in more than a decade. In the first lethal militant attack in the city in almost three years, three cops were killed in Srinagar’s Zadibal and Tengpora neighbourhoods on Monday. “From the CCTV footage, we figured out that they (three local youths) were involved in the shootout. They have been identified but are underground,” said the police officer. [related-post] Police sources said that while one of the youths is from old Srinagar city, the other two live in the uptown area. All three are believed to be in their twenties. “It is not certain whether the three are working independently or have joined a militant outfit,” a counter-insurgency police officer told The Indian Express. “There seems to be a Lashkar imprint in the way they killed the three policemen,” he added.
