Two Bihar labourers dead in latest killings in Jammu Kashmir

SRINAGAR: Two more Hindu seasonal labourers from Bihar were shot dead by unidentified assailants in Kashmir Valley on Sunday evening. A third was injured in the terror attack, the officials said.

The J&K police while blaming the latest attacks on separatist militants said that the victims Raja Reshi Dev, Jogindar Reshi Dev and Chun Chun Reshi Das were targeted by them in Kulgam’s Laran Ganjipora area.

While Raja Reshi and Joginder Reshi died on the spot, Chun Chun Reshi was injured in the attack and rushed to the Government Medical College Hospital in neighbouring Anantnag town. His condition was stated to be stable. “He has received firearm injuries in the back and arm. His condition is stable,” Medical Superintendent GMC Anantnag, Dr. Iqbal Sofi, was quoted as saying by local news agency GNS.

The security forces have laid siege to the area to capture the assailants dead or alive, the officials said.

On Saturday evening, street-vendor Arbind Kumar Sah and carpenter Sagir Ahmed, resident of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, were shot dead by assailants in Srinagar’s Idgah-Safa Kada’l area and Littar village of southern Pulwama district, respectively.

Earlier this months, seven civilians including a Kashmiri Pandit chemist Makhan Lal Bindroo, street-vendor from Bihar Virender Kumar Paswan, cab driver Muhammad Shaffi Lone, school principal Supinder Kour, teacher Deepak Chand (also a Kashmiri Pandit) and two other residents, Abdul Majid Guroo and Muhammad Shafi Dar, lost their lives in a spate of target killings in and outside Srinagar.

The J&K police blamed The Resistance Front (TRF) which it insists is an “offshoot” of proscribed Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) organisation for most of the 32 target killings that have taken place in the Valley so far this year and also many other terror activities in J&K. On Saturday, Inspector General of Police, Vijay Kumar, had claimed that at least five of those involved in these gory attacks are among the 13 militants eliminated by the security forces in their swift counterinsurgency operations in the past one week.

J&K’s lieutenant governor, Manoj Sinha, had earlier during the day on Sunday vowed to hunt down the perpetrators as well as their sympathisers to bring them to justice. He said in his monthly radio programme “Awaam ki Awaaz” (the voice of people): “I pay my heartfelt tributes to the martyr civilians and condolences to the bereaved families. We’ll hunt down terrorists, their sympathisers and avenge every drop of innocent civilians’ blood.”

Paying tributes to nine Army personnel, including two Junior Commissioned Officers (JCO), killed in the ongoing gunfight with militants in frontier Poonch-Rajouri region, Mr Sinha urged the people to remember the security personnel who have laid down their lives in the line of duty. He said, “When we light the Deepavali lamps next month, let’s light one lamp in remembrance of the martyrs among the security forces who were prematurely snatched from us by the enemies of humanity.”