Srinagar: A prominent face among Kashmir separatists, Muhammad Yusuf Rather alias Yusuf Nadeem, was shot dead by unknown assailant in Jammu and Kashmir’s central district of Budgam on Monday.
The police said that Nadeem, an official of the State’s Power Development Department (PDD), was travelling in a public transport vehicle from Budgam town to Beeru area of the district when a man, who was also on board, shot him dead from point blank range. The driver immediately stopped the vehicle and all other passengers quickly alighted from the vehicle and fled, a witness told the police.
“He was on his way home in Sundipora area of Beeru area in a service Chevrolet Tavera SUV when he was shot dead by an unknown assailant. The driver immediately stopped the vehicle at Charangam along the Beeru-Budgam road and informed the police,” said a police official. Reports said that Nadeem was shot in head and back, resulting in his instant death. SSP Budgam, Tejinder Singh confirmed the incident and said, “Our people have reached the place.” Nadeem, the police sources said, was a former militant of Hizb-ul-Mumineen, a Shia dominated outfit, and was currently associated with Tahreek-e-Wahdat, a constituent of Syed Ali Shah Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference alliance faction.
Meanwhile, the police said that one of the two persons killed in a road accident in north-western district of Baramulla earlier during the day on Monday was a militant.
The duo was rising a motorbike which skidded off the road amid heavy snowfall at Warpora on the peripheries of Sopore town, about 50-km from here. One person was killed on the spot and the other critically injured in the mishap died in a Srinagar hospital later. SSP Sopore, Harmeet Singh, said that among the dead one has been identified as Owais Ahmad Mir, son of Bashir Ahmed Mir, a resident of Brath Kalan Sopore who figured in the police’s list of wanted militants. The police sources said that Mir had joined only a fortnight ago.
The police said that the other person is also believed to a militant but his identity is being ascertained. End it
