Two killed as spate of targeted attacks continues in Kashmir

A local Muslim worker and a police officer were killed by suspected rebels – the latest in a series of such attacks that began last month.

Two people, including a police officer, have been shot dead in Indian-administered Kashmir – the latest in a series of targeted attacks in the disputed region that began last month.

On Monday evening, Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, a resident of Astengo in Bandipora district, was critically wounded when suspected rebels fired at him near a grocery shop in Bohri Kadal area of the main city of Srinagar.

Khan, who worked at the shop owned by a Kashmiri Hindu, succumbed to his injuries at a nearby hospital, police said in a statement, calling it a “terror incident”.

In another incident on Sunday evening, Tauseef Ahmad, a 29-year-old police officer, was shot dead outside his home in the Batamaloo neighborhood in the heart of Srinagar.

“On Sunday, I called him at 7:30 pm to remind him to come home as he had to take his medicine. He said he was buying candies for the kids. In 15 minutes, I got another call from his brother-in-law informing me that my husband has been shot,” Ahmad’s wife told reporters.

“We don’t need anything, but I just want to ask those who killed him: ‘What was the fault of my husband?’,” she said as her two children, aged four and five, huddled around her.

The Himalayan territory of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, which rule over parts of it. An armed rebellion against New Delhi’s rule on the Indian side began in 1989, with rebels demanding either the region’s merger with Pakistan or an independent nation.

The conflict intensified after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government scrapped the region’s limited autonomy in August 2019 and split it into two federally-run territories.

The move was followed by a months-long security lockdown, during which hundreds of Kashmiri leaders, activists, lawyers, and youths were arrested and thrown into jails.

A series of laws that local residents allege is aimed at changing the demographics of India’s only Muslim-majority region and robbing them of their livelihoods have added to the tensions.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES