Militants kidnapped three policemen and the brother of a fourth in Kashmir last night before dumping the three cops’ bullet-riddled bodies in an orchard, intensifying their “resign or die” campaign against the police.

The attack prompted a flood of social media videos from purported policemen announcing their resignation, but the Centre claimed this was “false propaganda” and that nobody was quitting.

Later, the government cited the killings as one of the reasons while calling off the proposed New York meeting between the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers.

The killings come in the run-up to next month’s municipal polls, to be followed by panchayat elections in November. Ten arson attacks on panchayat offices have taken place in the past five days.

Over several weeks now, the militants have been mounting pressure on policemen to quit the force, their campaign primarily targeting the 30,000 special police officers (SPOs), ad hoc employees who work on meagre salaries. Around 40 policemen have been killed this year alone.

On Thursday night, the insurgents struck at the Batgund and Kapran villages in Shopian, south Kashmir, abducting a constable, two SPOs and the brother of another SPO. They then killed policemen Nisar Ahmad, Firdous Kuchay and Kulwant Singh and freed the brother, Fayaz Ahmad Bhat.

Several hours of search led the security forces and distraught relatives to the bodies in an orchard in Lamni Wangam, adjoining Kapran, early on Friday morning.

By afternoon, over half-a-dozen “resignation” videos and pictures had surfaced on social media.

Umar Basher, who identified himself as an SPO from Kapran, held up a notice dated September 21. “With due regards, from today I will not offer my services. Please accept my resignation,” it read.

Tajalla Hussain, SPO from Batgund, said he had resigned on Monday. “I have no connection with the police. I will stay at home and sell apples,” he said.

The militants released a video showing a former sarpanch promising to persuade his son, Waseem Raja, to resign from the police. Several other videos showed men claiming to have quit the police service on Thursday.

The Union home ministry posted a series of tweets denying any resignation spree.

“Certain reports have appeared in a section of the media that some SPOs have resigned in Jammu and Kashmir. The J&K police have confirmed that these reports are untrue and motivated. These reports are based on false propaganda by mischievous elements,” it said.

“There are over 30,000 SPOs and their services are reviewed from time to time. Some mischievous elements are trying to project that those SPOs whose services are not renewed due to administrative reasons have resigned.”

An end-August abduction fiasco had led to the latest militant campaign, with Hizb commander Riyaz Naikoo warning policemen to be ready to die if they didn’t resign.

The police had arrested several relatives of militants in retaliation to four colleagues being killed in an attack. The insurgents responded by kidnapping close to a dozen relatives of policemen, prompting a “prisoner exchange”.

Within days, then state police chief S.P. Vaid was unceremoniously shifted to a low-profile post. Vaid has since denied any role in those arrests, which other sources have suggested were ordered by his juniors, whom governor Satya Pal Malik’s administration has not touched.

Acting police chief Dilbagh Singh condemned the latest murders and promised to hunt the killers down.