Srinagar: Two non-locals were shot dead by militants in Srinagar and Pulwama districts on Saturday, police said.
“Arvind Kumar Sah (30), a resident of the Banka area in Bihar, was shot at by the terrorists 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.
Today’s attacks come 11 days after a non-local vendor Virendra Paswan was shot dead in Srinagar shortly after Kashmiri Pandit chemist M L Bindroo was killed at his shop near Iqbal Park. A cab driver was also shot dead in north Kashmir’s Bandipora that evening.
The killings come on a day when police claimed to have killed three militants in a span of 24 hours who it said were involved in last week’s killings of members of minority communities.
J&K LG Manoj Sinha tweeted: “I strongly condemn the brutal killings of Arvind Kumar Shah and Sagir Ahmad by terrorists. My heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones. UT Govt stands in solidarity with the bereaved families in this hour of grief. Perpetrators of these heinous attacks will be punished soon. We have intensified our efforts to crush terrorists & their ecosystem. They will have to pay a very heavy price for killing innocent civilians. I urge people to speak in one voice and join hands in the fight against terror.”
Former chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah 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.
In another tweet, Omar condemned the killing of another non local Sageer Ahmad in Pulwama.
“…His death in the second terror attack today is a grim reminder of the precarious security situation in Kashmir these days,” Omar tweeted.
People’s Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone termed the attacks as cowardly.
“This is pure terror. Yet again a non-local vendor shot and killed in Idgah. What a shame. How cowardly can it get,” Lone tweeted.
In a statement Peoples Confernce also condemned the killing of non-local carpenter in Pulwama.
CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami and Apni Party president, Syed Altaf Bukhari too have condemned the killing of two civilians.
Such barbaric incidents have no place in a civilised society, Tarigami said.
The BJP also condemned Saturday’s killings. With the party spokesman Altaf Thakur saying the killings of two non-locals is highly condemnable and shocking.
He urged the police to nab the killers and punish them sternly.
