Militants struck on the third consecutive day on Tuesday in the run-up to the retirement of Jammu and Kashmir director-general of police Dilbagh Singh, killing a policeman.

Singh, a 1987-batch IPS officer, retired on Tuesday and was accorded a mega farewell at the Srinagar police headquarters. His tenure as DGP witnessed momentous changes, including the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. He presided over an unprecedented crackdown on voices of dissent as thousands, including former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, were jailed to prevent them from protesting against the 2019 decisions.

Militants cocked a snook at the outgoing police chief by carrying out three attacks in three days — killing a policeman and a migrant labourer and injuring a police inspector.

DGP Singh had on Saturday claimed Kashmir was “coming out of the dark era of terrorism” as the “graph of terrorism has come down and flattened”.

Shortly after Singh’s farewell, the police said militants had fired upon police head constable Ghulam Mohammad Dar at his home in Wailoo Kralpora village in Baramulla.

“Injured Police Personnel #succumbed to his injuries & attained #martyrdom. We pay our rich tributes to the #martyr & stand by his family at this critical juncture. Area has been cordoned off. Search operation going on,” the police posted on X Tuesday evening.

Mukesh Kumar, a migrant worker from Uttar Pradesh, was shot dead by militants on Monday in the Tumchi Nowpora area of Pulwama.

On Sunday, militants had shot at and critically injured police inspector Masroor Ahmad Wani who was playing cricket at the Eidgah playground in the old city.

The three attacks point to the militants’ capability to carry out attacks despite claims of officials that militancy was on its last leg in the region.