Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 16: In yet another incident of targeted killing, a Kashmiri Pandit was shot dead and his brother grievously injured by suspected militants in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Tuesday.
According to the police, terrorists fired upon civilians in an apple orchard in Chotipora area of Shopian. Confirming the incident, the police identified the deceased as Sunil Kumar and his injured brother as Pintu Kumar, sons of Arjun Nath Kumar, and said “Injured person has been shifted to hospital and the area has been cordoned off.” “Sunil died on the spot,” officials said.
Police sources said three alleged militants had entered the apple orchard and asked for their names and after being confirmed of their identity as Kashmiri Pandits opened fire at them killing Sunil Kumar on the spot while Pinto Kumar sustained injuries.
Soon after the attack, a joint team of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Indian Army and paramilitary forces cordoned off the area to trace the militants behind the attack.
At least 25 people, including four non-local residents, have lost their lives in targeted killings this year. Militants have particularly stepped up targeted attacks in the Kashmir Valley over the past week. A policeman was killed in Nowhatta on Sunday and a migrant labourer in Bandipora last week. Two grenade attacks were reported in Budgam and Srinagar last week in which one migrant labourer was injured.
Kashmiri Pandit Sangarash Samiti (KPSS), an organisation of those Kashmiri Pandits who did not leave in the 1990s, said the militants seem to have made it clear that they would go after all Pandits living in the Kashmir valley.
“The KPSS requests all the Kashmiri Pandits to leave the Kashmir Valley. With another deadly attack on Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir Valley, the terrorists have made it clear they are going to kill all the Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir Valley,” KPSS chairman Sanjay Tickoo said.
He said the irony is local over-ground workers work with the militants to kill their neighbours. “Kashmir is a place where tourists are safe as no attacks were executed during the Amarnath Yatra, but local non-Muslims, particularly Kashmiri Pandits, are vulnerable,” he said.
Tickoo said the judiciary and the government have failed miserably to protect Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley. “Kashmiri Pandits should leave Kashmir and do not fall trap to sugar-coated statements from Kashmiri society. Kashmiri Pandits are left with only one option to leave Kashmir or get killed by religious fanatic minds, who have support from the local population,” Tickoo said.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and political leaders cutting across party lines condemned the killing of the Kashmir Pandit man. “Pained beyond words on the despicable terror attack on civilians in Shopian. My thoughts are with the family of Sunil Kumar. Praying for a speedy recovery of the injured. The attack deserves the strongest condemnation from everyone. Terrorists responsible for the barbaric act will not be spared,” Sinha tweeted. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah also condemned the killing.
“Terribly sad news from South Kashmir today. An accident and a militant attack have left a trail of death and suffering. I condemn the militant attack in Shopian unequivocally in which Sunil Kumar was killed and Pinto Kumar injured. My condolences to the family,” he said. BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur said, “Strongly condemn the dastardly act of terror on innocent minority community members at Shopian in which Sunil Kumar was killed and another injured. Terror has no religion. Killers should be punished.”
People’s Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone condemned the attack as a “heinous act of violence” and expressed his condolences to the family of the victims.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said the residents of Jammu and Kashmir have become “cannon fodder in Delhi’s quest for manufactured normalcy.” “Terribly sorry to hear about the targeted killing in Shopian. Condolences to the deceased’s family. GOI continues to behave like an ostrich with its head buried deep under the sand. Every resident of J&K has become cannon fodder in Delhi’s quest for ‘manufactured normalcy,” she tweeted.
