STATE TIMES NEWS
Srinagar/Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Wednesday initiated the process of attaching the house of a terrorist who killed a Kashmiri Pandit in Shopian, even as the minority community held a massive protest in Jammu against the latest killing.
Police have also arrested father and three brothers of Adil Wani, a categorised terrorist of Al-Badr outfit, for sheltering him after he killed the Kashmiri Pandit and injured his brother on Tuesday.
Police identify killers of KP fatally shot in Shopian
Srinagar: The killers of Sunil Kumar Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit who was shot dead by terrorists in Shopian, have been identified and they will be given stringent punishment, Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbagh Singh said on Wednesday.
“We have identified the two suspects who had killed him (Bhat). Follow up action is underway and we are working on it, “the DGP told reporters on the sidelines of a function here. He said stringent punishment will be handed out to those involved in the killing of Sunil Kumar.
Terrorists shot dead the Kashmiri Pandit and injured his cousin on Tuesday at an apple orchard in south Kashmir’s Shopian district.
According to police officials, two terrorists belonging to the banned Al-Badar organisation, came to the orchard in the morning and lined up everyone.
After identification, they segregated Sunil Kumar Bhat and his cousin Pitambar Kumar Bhat aka Pintu Kumar and shot indiscriminately on them with their AK-47 rifles. According to eyewitnesses and Pitambar Bhat’s statement, while one terrorist was firing indiscriminately, the other was capturing the horrific incident on his smartphone.
Police said Wani killed Sunil Kumar Bhat in an orchard in a Shopian village on Tuesday and later took shelter at his home in Kutpora.
The security forces launched a cordon and search operation but Wani fled in the cover of darkness after hurling grenades at the approaching police party, they said.
During the search operation, police also recovered arms and ammunition from Wani’s house, prompting the authorities to place his father and three brothers under arrest, besides initiating the process of attaching their house.
Wani was identified by eyewitnesses and Sunil Kumar’s cousin as the person who fired indiscriminately at him and his brother while they were working in the apple orchard on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, the Jammu and Kashmir Police had announced that it would start the process of “attachment of some immovable properties which have been used for purpose of terrorism as per section 2(g) and 25 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act” and asked people not to shelter or harbour terrorists/terror associates.
Meanwhile, Kashmiri Pandits serving in the Valley held a massive protest against the killing of their community member in Shopian and demanded that the employees in Kashmir under the prime minister’s package be relocated to Jammu in view of selective and targeted killings.
Hundreds of Kashmir-posted KP employees, who are on strike and have been protesting for past three months here in support of their relocation to safer areas in Jammu, assembled at relief commissioner’s office and took out a rally to protest the fresh killing in the Valley.
They were also joined by activists of various Kashmiri Pandit organisations.
Raising ‘Bharat Mata Ki jai’ and ‘Justice for KPs’ relocation’ slogans, they took out the protest rally and jammed the Tawi bridge on the highway for hours. They sat on a dharna for two hours on the bridge. Police had to face a tough time to remove them from the bridge and clear the highway.
The protesters also briefly clashed with police who were forcibly evicting them from the bridge to restore the traffic.
“We have only one demand of relocation of our postings from Kashmir to Jammu as selective killings of Kashmiri Pandits continue unabated. We have been made sitting ducks for target practice of terrorists,” a protesting employee, Sunil, told reporters.
