A civilian was shot dead in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian Tuesday and another was injured. Both belong to minority communities and the injured person is being treated at a hospital, J&K Police tweeted.
The man who was shot dead has been identified as one Sunil Kumar and the injured man is believed to be his brother. Preliminary reports indicate the brothers are Kashmiri Pandits but police have not confirmed this as yet.
The spokesperson for the J&K unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Altaf Thakur, said he ‘strongly condemn(s) the dastardly act of terror’.
“Strongly condemn the dastardly act of terror on innocent majority community members at Shopian in which one minority community member, Sunil Kumar, was killed and another injured. Terror has no religion. Killers should be punished,” he said.
The Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samaj – a body representing Pandits who did not migrate from Kashmir – tweeted “Another bloody day in Kashmir one Sunil Bhat non migrant kp shot dead by the terrorists at Chotigam Shopiyan today.”
This is second attack on non-migrant Pandits in Kashmir in less than 24 hours.
On Monday – as the country was celebrating its 75th Independence Day – terrorists threw a grenade at a house in Budgam and injured a civilian identified as Karan Kumar Singh. Singh was shifted to a Srinagar hospital.
In a separate attack on the same day, terrorists threw a grenade at a police control room in Srinagar’s Batamaloo area. One police personnel was injured.
Both attacks came a day after an encounter between terrorists and security forces in Srinagar’s Nowhatta. A police constable, Sarfaraz Ahmad, died.
A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist was injured in the encounter.
Overall, two policemen have been killed and two others, including a civilian, injured in Kashmir in four attacks carried out Sunday and Monday despite tight security in view of Independence Day.
Investigators have said they have some clues. “…people behind these attacks will be soon be arrested,” a police officer who did not want to be named told news agency.
Police further said they had recovered a scooter, a rifle and two grenades after the Nowhatta encounter and that these items had belonged to two terrorists, one of whom had escpaed despite being injured. Police also said they had arrested a local for giving the terrorists the scooter.