Sopore, Sep 08: Unidentified gunmen on Saturday shot dead a Hurriyat-G activist in Sopore area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Reports said that unidentified gunmen fired upon Hakim-ul-Rehman Sultani, son of Moulvi Nizamudin outside his home in Reshipora Bomai.
They said some unknown gunmen intercepted Sultani’s vehicle (JK05C-0769) near Boys Higher Secondary School road and fired two shots from a close range, which hit his neck and chest.
“At around 12:30 pm, I saw the vehicle of Hakim-ur-Rehman on Boys Higher Secondary School road and when I approached towards it, Hakim was lying in a pool of blood on the driver’s seat. I called for help and along with some other took him to the hospital, but he succumbed on way,” Dr Syed Muntazir, his cousin told ‘Kashmir Images’.
Sultani was affiliated with Hurriyat-G led by Syed Ali Geelani and was recently released from jail.
Police have registered a case in this regard and investigation has been initiated, police spokesman said.
Later thousands of people participated in the funeral prayers of slain Sultani. Witnesses said people from nearby and far-off villages of Zainageer belt took part in his last rites.
They said pro-freedom slogans were also raised as his body was lowered into the grave at the local graveyard.
Sultani, who is survived by his wife and four daughters, was released couple of weeks ago after serving two years in a jail in Kupwara on charges of stone-pelting.
Speaking with ‘Kashmir Images’, Shafqat Nazir, who was Sultani’s lawyer said, “Since 2010, he was an active member of Hurriyat-G and played important role in organizing protest programmess post-Burhan Wani killing and as a result the state police registered 12 FIRs against him. He was arrested from nearby village at the end of 2016, and detained under PSA for 18 months and was recently released before Eid-ul-Azha.”
He said in 2010, he got seriously injured after CRPF allegedly opened fire on a protest rally in Bomai. He received two bullets — one in the arm and another in his thigh, and underwent treatment at Bones and Joints Hospital Barzulla for one month, the lawyers added.
Meanwhile, in a statement here, Joint Resistance Leadership — Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik — expressed their shock on brutal killing of Hakeem-ur-Rehman Sultani.
Condemning the gruesome murder, the JRL said it has constituted a high-level committee to visit the location and gather details about this gruesome killing.
JRL expressed hearty condolences with the grief-stricken family, his widow and five minor daughters, and peace to the departed soul.
Unknown gunmen on Saturday shot dead a youth, who police said was a militant of the ‘Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind’, in Naseem Bagh area of Hazratbal in Srinagar.
The gunmen fired upon a youth identified as Asif Nazir Dar, a resident of the Panzgam area of Awantipora in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, in the Hazratbal area of the city here, resulting in his on the spot death, a police official said.
Dar was an active militant associated with the Hizbul Mujahideen, but later defected to Zakir Musa-led Ansar Gazwat-ul-Hind, an affiliate of al-Qaeda in the Valley, the official said.
SSP Srinagar Imtiaz Ismail Parray told GNS that a police team reached at the spot immediately and recovered the body for medico-legal formalities.
He said that one pistol and two magazines were recovered from the possession of the slain youth.
He said that a case under relevant sections of law has been registered and further investigation taken up to ascertain the incident.
This was the second killing by unknown gunmen in the Valley today.
Earlier in the day, a Hurriyat-G activist Hakim-ur-Rehman Sultani was shot dead outside his home in Bomai area of Sopore.
