Khabar Bureau
A young army officer was kidnapped in Kashmir by terrorists from a wedding last night and shot dead.The bullet-riddled body of an army officer was found on Wednesday morning in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district, police said. The body was identified to be of an Army Lieutenant Umar Fayaz. The officer was on leave and had gone for his cousin's wedding at Kulgaon in south Kashmir when he was kidnapped around 10 pm.

"The officer had been kidnapped by militants late on Tuesday evening from Kulgam town where he had gone to attend a family function," a police officer said. According to sources, the killing marks a worrying trend of terrorists targeting army officers even when they are off duty. An advisory was earlier issued by the state police asking its personnel not to visit ancestral homes, especially in south Kashmir areas till it was withdrawn. There has been a spike in militant activities in most districts of south Kashmir including, Pulwama, Shopian, Anantnag and Kulgam. According to the J&k police, support from the locals for terrorists openly roaming the countryside in south kashmir,manifests a bigger problem of public resistance towards the army . Last Thursday, security forces carried out a huge anti-terror operation,monitored from air by helicopters and unmanned vehicles,across two dozen villages in Shopian. During the final hours of the operation, a sudden strike by terrorists killed one civilian and injured two soldiers. Even on that day, the forces encountered resistance from locals in at least four villages. Two days later, a policeman, Azhar Mehmood, was killed in Anantnag along with three civilians by Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Fayaz Ahmad Aishwar. Azhar Mehmood was attacked while he and other policemen were regulating traffic after a road accident. In another incident last week, terrorists killed five policemen and two private guards in Kulgam after dragging them out of a cash van.