J&K: Retired SSP shot dead by terrorists while offering 'azaan'

A 72-year-old retired police officer, who was the local “muezzin”, was shot dead by terrorists while he was giving “azaan” – the call for prayer – from a mosque in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Sunday, police said.

A 72-year-old retired police officer, who was the local "muezzin", was shot dead by terrorists while he was giving “azaan” – the call for prayer – from a mosque in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district on Sunday, police said.

Recalling the moments before Mohammad Shafi Mir was killed, his cousin Mohammad Mustafa, who was at home, said the call for the pre-dawn prayers was being given by a loudspeaker and suddenly it stopped. Mir's last words were "reham" (mercy), he said.

The "azaan" had stopped at "Ashhadu Anna Mohammadu Rasool-Allah (I bear witness that Mohammad is the messenger of Allah)", Mustafa said.

Police said Mir retired as a senior superintendent of police (SSP) in 2012. He was shot dead by terrorists inside the mosque in the Gantmulla locality of the north Kashmir district's Sheeri area, they said.

"Terrorists fired upon Shri Mohd Shafi, a retired police officer, at Gantmulla, Sheeri Baramulla, while praying 'azaan' in the mosque and succumbed to injuries," the Kashmir Zone Police said in a post on X.

Police have launched a search operation in the area to nab the assailants.

Mir had become the local "muezzin" – a person who calls for prayers – and he was devoted to his duties at the mosque, his family members said.