Srinagar, June 27 : A special police officer (SPO) who went missing from Pampore police station in Jammu and Kashmir with an AK-47 rifle, has joined the Hizbul Mujahideen, the militant group said.

Hizb spokesman Burhan-u-Din called a local news agency and claimed that Irfan Ahmad Dar had joined the group.

"SPO Irfan Ahmad Dar, a resident of Nehama Kakapora of Pulwama district, who fled with his rifle, has joined Hizb-ul-Mujahideen," the spokesman said.

Dar went missing on Tuesday from Pampore police station along with the AK-47 rifle. Police said earlier that a hunt had been launched to trace him.

SPOs are engaged on a fixed monthly packet in Jammu and Kashmir to fight militancy. They are neither trained in handling firearms nor are they issued service weapons.

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Chamarajanagar (Karnataka), Apr 25 (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that India would identify, track, and punish every terrorist and their backers responsible for the Pahalgam attack “beyond their imagination.”

Siddaramaiah pointed out that Modi had made a similar statement after the 2019 Pulwama terror attack, which killed over 40 soldiers.

"This happened even after he made the same statement in 2019. What did he say after the Pulwama terror attack? After that statement, 27 people were killed in Pahalgam by terrorists. He had then said he would wipe out terrorism. What happened?" Siddaramaiah told reporters here.

Responding to a query, he said he had no information about what transpired at the all-party meeting held on Thursday in New Delhi. "There were a lot of people around me, and I couldn’t follow it properly."

"It’s a central intelligence failure," Siddaramaiah alleged.

Terrorists opened fire at a tourist spot near Pahalgam in Kashmir on the afternoon of April 22, killing 26 people—mostly tourists—in the deadliest attack in the Valley since the 2019 Pulwama strike.

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