Kashmiri Pandit shot dead in terror attack in J&K's Shopian

|HT|

A Kashmiri Pandit was shot dead in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian Tuesday and another was injured, J&K Police tweeted, adding that the injured person is being treated at a local hospital. The dead man has been identified as one Sunil Kumar and the injured man is believed to be his brother.

The attack - the latest in a long line of targeted civilian killings and terror strikes on security forces - has been condemned by National Conference leader and ex J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah, who offered his condolences.

"Terribly sad news from South Kashmir today. An accident (referring to the death of at least six troops from the Indo Tibetan Border Police who died after the bus they were in fell into a riverbed) & a militant attack have left a trail of death & suffering. I condemn the militant attack in Shopian unequivocally in which Sunil Kumar was killed & Pinto Kumar injured. My condolences..."

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.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)