Four policemen on patrol duty were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by militants went off in Sopore town in north Kashmir today, an official said.

Militants had planted the IED near a shop in a lane between the ‘Chotta Bazaar’ and ‘Bada Bazaar’ in Sopore in Baramulla district, the official said.

ANI posted pictures from the scene. It initially said that three officers were killed and the informed that one more police officer " lost his life".

The policemen were patrolling the area in view of a separatist-sponsored strike there.

Denouncing the killing of four policemen in an IED blast in Sopore, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today urged the people to work shoulder to shoulder to break the “vortex of violence” in the state. "These young policemen were killed when they were on duty to protect the people in the town. It is highly unfortunate to see," Mufti said. “The vortex of violence in the state needs to be broken and for that every section of society has to work shoulder to shoulder,” the chief minister said. She also offered her condolences to the families of the deceased policemen. “Pained to hear that four policeman have been killed in an IED explosion in Sopore. My deepest condolences to their families,” she wrote on twitter.

"Very sad news from #Sopore. May the four brave J&K police personnel killed in the line of duty today rest in peace," former chief minister Omar Abdullah said on Twitter. J-K Congress chief GA Mir condemned the killing and said the incident had exposed the tall claims of the Mehbooba government about the Kashmir situation being normal. "The central and J&K governments were engaged in concealing the truth," he alleged.

This is the first major terror attack in the Valley in which security forces have suffered casualties. Five CRPF men were killed on December 31 when heavily armed terrorists carried out a suicide attack on a camp of the paramilitary force in Pulwama in south Kashmir.

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