Kashmiri Pandit killed, brother injured in fresh targeted attack
A Kashmiri Pandit was killed in Jammu & Kashmir’s Shopian while his brother was injured on Tuesday in the latest in a series of targeted attacks on minorities and migrant workers amid a spike in the violence in the region.
Police said the two were attacked while they were working in their apple orchard. They added Sunil Kumar was killed while Pintu Kumar was undergoing treatment at a hospital. Police said the area around the attack scene was sealed and additional forces were rushed there to launch a search operation.
Jammu & Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha said the terrorists responsible for the killing will not be spared. “Pained beyond words on despicable terror attack on civilians in Shopian. My thoughts are with the family of Sunil Kumar. Praying for speedy recovery of injured. The attack deserves strongest condemnation from everyone,” he tweeted.
Former chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah were among others who condemned the attack. “Terribly sorry to hear about the targeted killing in Shopian. Condolences to the deceased’s family. GOI [government of India] 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.
In May, Kashmiri Pandits took to the streets after Rahul Bhat, a government employee posted in Budgam’s Chadoora, was killed. The protests intensified after a woman schoolteacher from Jammu was shot dead on campus at Gopalpora in the Kulgam district.
The latest attack on the Shopian brothers was the second such assault since Monday when terrorists threw a grenade at a house in Budgam and left a civilian identified as Karan Kumar Singh wounded.
Two policemen were killed in separate attacks despite tight security and high alert in Kashmir in view of the Independence Day celebrations. Another policeman was injured when the Jammu & Kashmir Police Control Room, a key facility in Srinagar, was targeted.
Mohammad Amrez, a migrant worker from Bihar’s Madhepura, was shot dead at Sumbal in the Bandipora district on Thursday last in the second such attack in Kashmir this month. On August 4, another migrant labourer was killed and two others injured in a grenade attack at Gadoora in the Pulwama district. On June 3, a brick kiln worker was killed in the Budgam district.
Amrez was shot dead hours after four soldiers were killed and two others injured when two terrorists attempted to storm an army camp at Pargal in Jammu & Kashmir’s Rajouri district days before India celebrated 75 years of Independence. The attack on the camp was the first such strike since 2018 when terrorists attacked an army camp at Sunjuwan in Jammu and left six soldiers and a civilian dead.
On Wednesday last, Jammu & Kashmir Police said they averted an attack by recovering a 25kg improvised explosive device in Pulwama.
