Srinagar : Suspected militants shot at and killed a Kashmiri Pandit in Chowdhary Gund village under Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district Saturday afternoon. The police said the victim was on his way to an orchard when militants fired at him.
The deceased has been identified as Puran Krishan Bhat. He was critically injured in the firing and lost his life during treatment in a hospital.
“Terrorists fired upon a civilian (minority) Shri Puran Krishan Bhat while he was on way to orchard in Chowdhary Gund Shopian. He was immediately shifted to hospital for treatment where he succumbed. Area cordoned off. Search in progress,” the Jammu and Kashmir Police tweeted.
While the police said that Bhat was targeted when he was on his way to an orchard, locals said he was shot at just outside his residence.
Bhat, a Kashmiri Hindu, did not leave the Valley even when militancy peaked in the 1990s.
The attack on Bhat has come just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Gujarat that the Kashmir issue has been resolved.
“Another KP (Kashmiri pandit) non-migrant killed at Chowdhary Gund in Shopian… despite our tweet on 13th October but nothing has changed on ground zero. It (is) also a message to Shri Amit Shah that everything is (not) ok in Kashmir,” tweeted Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS), an organisation representing Kashmiri Pandits who did not leave the Valley.q
Meanwhile, KPSS president Sanjay Tickoo alleged that the deputy commissioner of Shopian and senior superintendent of police (Shopian) are “pressuring the victim’s family to conduct the last rites as soon as possible as they have to show normalcy in the Valley.” — PTI