Two non-local civilians killed by terrorists in Srinagar & Pulwama

Representative Image (Photo by Irfan Amin Malik)

Two non-local civilians were shot dead by militants in the Srinagar and Pulwama districts of Jammu and Kashmir on October 16.

Arvind Kumar Sah (30), a resident of the Banka area in Bihar, was shot at outside a park at Eidgah in Srinagar in the evening, a police official said. He said Kumar died on the spot.

In another incident, militants fired at and critically injured Saghir Ahmad, a carpenter hailing from Uttar Pradesh, in Pulwama district, the official said. Ahmad succumbed to injuries in a hospital, he added.

Kashmir Zone Police have cordoned off the area and have begun search operations.

#UPDATE | Non-local labourer Sagir Ahmad of Saharanpur, UP who was critically injured in a terror attack in Pulwama, also succumbed to his injuries. Search operations are in progress: Kashmir Zone Police

— ANI (@ANI) October 16, 2021

Also Read: Civilians are soft targets, extremely hard to defend: Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Hooda on Kashmir killings

The BJP has condemned Saturday's killings. Party spokesman Altaf Thakur said the killings of two non-locals is highly condemnable and shocking. He urged the police to nab the killers and punish them sternly.

Former chief minister and national Conference leader Omar Abdullah also condemned the killings. "Strongly condemn the killing of street vendor Arvind Kumar in a terror attack in Srinagar today. This is yet another case of a civilian being targeted like this. All Arvind Kumar did was come to Srinagar in search of earning opportunities & it's reprehensible that he was murdered," Omar tweeted.

Sajad Lone of the Peoples Conference tweeted, “This is pure terror. Yet again a golgappa vendor shot and killed in Idgah. What a shame. How cowardly can it get.”

This is the ninth such killing to have happened in the last few days, at least seven people have lost their lives in just the past one week. Kumar and Ahmad's killing comes on a day when police claimed to have gunned down three militants in a span of 24 hours who were involved in last week's killings of members of minority communities in Srinagar.

Edigah is the same area where a principal and a teacher of a school was gunned by the terrorists last week. Principal of Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Eidgah, Satinder Kaur, and a teacher, Deepak Chand, was shot dead inside the school premises on October 7.

Prior to this incident, on October 2, militants shot dead Majid Ahmad Gojri, a resident of Chattabal Srinagar, at Karan Nagar. Later that night, another civilian Mohammad Shafi Dar, resident of Batamaloo, was shot at and injured at SD Colony Batamaloo. He succumbed to injuries a few hours later.

(With inputs from agencies)