Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 7: Continuing the spree of killing the Kashmiri Pandits in the valley, two teachers were shot dead inside a government school in Srinagar on Thursday.
It was the second such incident in the last two days after a well-known Kashmiri Pandit chemist Makhan Lal Bindroo and two others were gunned down in the valley on Tuesday.
A spree of civilian killings, seven in the past 10 days, has come at a time when Union Ministers are on a nine-week outreach programme in Jammu and Kashmir. Besides Bindroo, 27 innocent civilians have so far have been killed in the valley this year so far.
A police official said unknown gunmen barged into the Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Iddgah Sangam, in the old city and fired from a point-blank range at the two teachers. “Both the teachers were declared brought dead at a nearby hospital,” officials said.
The victims were identified as Satinder Kaur, principal of the school, and Deepak Chand, a teacher, both residents of Allocha Bagh in Srinagar. Locals said Chand, a Kashmiri Pandit, had shifted back from Jammu after his family migrated in the 1990s, when militancy broke out.
One of the teachers in the school said they were sipping tea when they heard gunshots outside the principal’s room around 11:15 a.m.. “We saw our colleague Chand falling to the ground outside the principal’s room,” the teacher said.
The Resistance Front (TRF), floated after the Centre ended J&K’s special constitutional position, has purportedly claimed responsibility for the attack on the social media platforms. “The Shaheed Gazi Squad carried out the targeted attack on two non-locals who were domicile holders and had harassed the parents of the students to salute the occupier’s flag on August 15,” a TRF spokesman said.
Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh, who visited the spot, said, “This is an attempt to defame local Muslims of Kashmir. Killing innocent civilians, including teachers, is a move to attack and damage the age-old tradition of communal harmony and brotherhood in Kashmir. The police have got some clues and leads about the killers in the previous cases. Police will nab the killers very soon,” he said.
The Union Territory’s political parties have condemned the killings. “Disturbing to see the deteriorating situation in Kashmir where a minuscule minority is the latest target. (Government of India) GOI’s claims of building a Naya Kashmir has actually turned it into a hellhole. It’s sole interest is to use Kashmir as a milch cow for its electoral interests,” Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said.
National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah, who described it as “shocking news”, said, “Words of condemnation are not enough for this inhuman act of terror but I pray for the souls of the deceased to rest in peace.”
Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone said, “It is important to understand that terrorists have no religion. Muslims have been killed too. I personally had a killing in my family. This is a lunatic fringe which is a curse for Kashmir. May Allah rid us of this curse.”