Srinagar: Two non-local civilians, one of them a carpenter and another a street hawker, were killed in two separate attacks carried out by unidentified gunmen in Srinagar and Pulwama districts, late Saturday evening.
The slain civilians have been identified as Arbind Kumar Sah, son of Devendra Kumar, a resident of Bihar, and Sagheer Ahmad, a resident of Uttar Pradesh. Sah sold snacks (Panipuri) in the Eidgah area of Srinagar while Ahmad worked as a carpenter in the Pulwama district of South Kashmir.
The first attack took place in Lal Bazar of Srinagar, at around 6:15 PM Saturday evening. A senior police official from Srinagar told Kashmir Reader that Sah was shot at, by unidentified militants, from a close range.
“He was shot multiple times, and had lost a lot of blood before he could be evacuated to the hospital,” the official said, adding that he had died on spot, “He was however taken to the hospital, where he was declared brought dead,”
The official said that the area was cordoned off and searches were carried out in the area to try and nab the attackers. The attackers however managed to flee.
The second incident took place, minutes later, in the Litter area of Pulwama district. At around 6:30 Ahmad was shot at by unidentified gunmen while returning back from work.
“He was intercepted and shot multiple times. He was evacuated to the hospital, but could not be saved. He died at the hospital,” a police official from the area told Kashmir Reader.
The attackers managed to flee in Pulwama as well. There has been a spate of such attacks recently in Kashmir valley, leaving the security agencies on tenterhooks.
On October 5, three such attacks were carried out – two in Srinagar and one in the Hajin area of Bandipora district in North Kashmir. Three people, including a Kashmiri pandit, a street hawker from Bihar, and a Kashmiri Muslim man were killed in the three attacks.
The security agencies have intensified anti-militancy operations across the valley, with as many as 13 militants getting killed in 9 gunfights between October 5 and October 16.
Hours ahead of today’s attacks, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, maintained that three out of five militants active in Srinagar were neutralized in the last twenty-four hours.
The slain militants have been accused of carrying out these civilian killings by the police, while they vowed to wipe out the rest of the militants.
Meanwhile, a huge blast was heard in the Kakapora area of Pulwama district, in between the two shootouts. While sources maintained that a grenade was hurled at a Naka party of the government forces, and missed the target, there has been no official confirmation on the same till this report was filed.

  Kashmir 370

Suhail A Shah