A police inspector playing cricket at his neighbourhood playground was shot at and critically injured in Srinagar on Sunday evening, two days after Jammu and Kashmir’s outgoing police chief claimed that terrorism was on the wane.

Local people said the playground in Srinagar’s Eidgah locality was filled with young men playing cricket when a militant walked up to Masroor Ahmad Wani and shot him at point-blank range. The officer lives in an adjoining area.

Police acknowledged the shooter was a militant. “Preliminary investigation reveals that a pistol was used in this terror crime. Area cordoned off, case registered,” the police posted on X.

The Resistance Front, a shadow outfit of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, has claimed responsibility.

Hospital sources said Wani had been shot in the eye, abdomen and hand from close and his condition was “critical”.

Wani, in his 30s, was off duty and in civil dress, and had no security guards protecting him, when he was attacked.

“On his days off, he would occasionally play cricket at Eidgah with his friends. Perhaps the militants were watching his movements,” a resident said.

Local people said the officer’s teammates tried to chase the militant but he fired in the air before escaping.

The attack comes two days before the retirement of director-general of police Dilbagh Singh.

Singh had told a gathering on Saturday that Jammu and Kashmir was “coming out of the dark era of terrorism and the graph of terrorism has come down and flattened”.

“We want to see it come down to zero,” he had added. “We brought peace to Jammu and Kashmir, pulling it out of the jaws of terrorism and bloodshed during my tenure.”

Singh had claimed last week that 10 local people had joined militancy this year against 110 last year, implying that militancy was waning.