In another targeted killing of a Hindu in Kashmir, unidentified terrorists on Tuesday shot dead Kashmiri Pandit Sunil Kumar Bhat in an apple orchard in Chotipora area of Shopian district in South Kashmir. Sunil’s cousin Pritmber (Pintu) Bhat was injured in the shooting and has been shifted to a Srinagar hospital for specialised treatment.

“He was a farmer by profession and lived in the village along with his family,” a police official from the district said. Sunil is survived by his three daughters and his wife. As per eyewitnesses, one terrorist of Al-Badr, Adil Wani, of Kutpora Shopian and an Over Ground Worker (OGW) were involved in the killing.

According to eyewitnesses and Pritmber Bhat’s statement, “while one terrorist was firing indiscriminately, the other was capturing the horrific incident on his smart phone.”

According to a report in Hinduexistence.org, the victim brothers were pruning an overgrowth of willow trees of their orchard with the help of three local hands, when the terrorists arrived. They told the the hired hands to leave before opening fire at the brothers.

News agency ANI tweeted visuals of the victim’s home where family members and neighbors gathered to mourn the death.

This was the second terrorist attack on non-migrant Hindus in Kashmir in the past 24 hours. On Monday, terrorists attacked a house with a grenade in Budgam. A civilian, identified as Karan Kumar Singh, was injured in the attack. Singh was admitted to a hospital in Srinagar.

Kashmiri Hindus blame local administration

An angry relative of Sunil told Daily Excelsior that the Government should rehabilitate the family of the deceased and the injured. He alleged that earlier a few months ago a chemist of the village Sonu Kumar was also targeted by terrorists and he was injured in the attack. “He came out of the hospital after several months. He was not given any compensation. He is begging for a ration card in Jammu but has not been provided,” he alleged.

“Think about our security, our lives, our safety,” said Anil Kumar, the pained Kashmiri Pandit whose brother, Sonu Kumar, was shot at and grievously injured in Shopian district on 9 April this year.

Anil was speaking from Sunil Bhat’s home, his neighbor. He went on to allege that after the attack on his brother, he approached several officers, including the divisional commissioner, and urged them to provide them security. However, the divisional commissioner allegedly responded by saying, ‘live in your village and die there, nothing lies in my hands and I can’t do anything for you.’”

Divisional Commissioner PK Pole refuted the allegations and said, “We have already deployed guards here and every possible step is being taken for the safety of the minority communities.”

Spate of killings

At a time when elites in Lutyens’ Delhi are again pushing the envelope for talks with Pakistan, the Pakistan-backed terrorist insurgency continues to take innocent lives.

As per a PTI report, “there has been a sudden spike in attacks on minorities, labourers and police personnel in the Valley since the beginning of this year. The death toll in targeted attacks has gone up to 21 this year which includes two Kashmiri Pandits.

In January, one policeman was killed in a targeted attack in Anantnag. March saw the highest of seven such killings — five civilians and an on-leave CRPF jawan in Shopian and a special police officer (SPO) in Budgam. The brother of the SPO also lost his life in the same attack.

In April, two civilians, including a sarpanch, were killed, while in May, five persons — two policemen and three civilians — were killed. The civilians were Rahul Bhat, a government employee recruited under the Prime Minister’s special package for Kashmir Pandits, TV actor Amreen Bhat, and teacher Rajini Bala.”