J-K: Ex-legislator’s relative missing with security guard’s rifle

A relative of a former legislator took off with the service rifle of his security guard in Shopian district of south Kashmir, police said on Wednesday.

A relative of a former legislator took off with the service rifle of his security guard in Shopian district of south Kashmir, police said on Wednesday.

A relative of a former legislator took off with the service rifle of his security guard in Shopian district of south Kashmir. (Shutterstock/Representative image)

Wasim Ahmad Khanday allegedly took away the AK-47 rifle along with a magazine and 30 rounds from the guard room at the residence of former CPI MLC Abdul Rehman Tukroo at Tukroo village of Shopian this morning, a police official said.

He said the weapon was allotted to Tukroo’s personal security guard, Constable Mohammad Abbas.

It was not immediately clear as to where the constable was when the accused person decamped with the rifle.

A departmental inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the circumstances of the incident even as authorities have sounded an alert in the area to track down Khanday, the official said.

Several cases of weapon-snatching have been reported from south Kashmir this year, with the biggest arms haul of 39 rifles looted from police station Damhal Hanjipora in Kulgam district at the start of the current unrest in July.