The Pandit population in the Valley as a whole has been shaken by the events in Shopian. On Tuesday, militants killed one Kashmiri Pandit and wounded another in an orchard in the town of Shopian in southern Kashmir, sending shock waves once again through the Valley’s minority community.
A Pandit organization operating in the Valley has reported that all Pandits in Kashmir now feel threatened.
Apparently, two Pandit men were shot by unknown militants while working in their apple orchard in the Chotipora neighborhood of Shopian, according to the police. A close-range gunshot killed Sunil Kumar instantly. Pitambar Nath Pandit, the other victim, was taken to an Army hospital in Srinagar after suffering injuries in the incident.
According to investigators, the terrorist attack happened at approximately 11:30 p.m. Two members of Chotigam Shopian’s minority group, Sunil Kumar Bhat (son of Sri Ji Bhat) and Pitambar Nath Bhat (son of Arjun Nath Bhat) were critically wounded by gunfire. In the end, Bhat’s wounds proved fatal. The other injured victim, however, “is claimed to be stable,” according to the police.
Officers “continue to strive to establish the full facts of this terror crime,” according to the police statement.
They are all in such disbelief that they can’t come to terms with what has happened. As the body of the victim was turned over to them, they yelled for justice. Back in the 1990s, when most of their people fled the Kashmir Valley because of the increasing violence, they stayed.
Kashmiri Pandits in Shopian’s Chotipora have been assaulted by militants for the second time this year. A Pandit storeowner named Sonu Kumar was shot and wounded in his store in April.
To make our neighborhood safer, we contacted the Shopian District Commissioner’s office and the Divisional Commissioner. They enacted. Kumar’s brother added, “They are guilty for these killings.
At least two members of the minority community, a Pandit worker named Rahul Bhat and a Jammu-based schoolteacher named Rajni Bala, have been murdered this year in Kashmir.
Despite being posted to the Valley “to secure the district headquarters,” migrant Pandit workers have refused to go to work since the killings. They were hired as part of the Prime Minister’s homecoming and rehabilitation program for the Union Territory
In recent days, militants in Kashmir appear to have initiated a new wave of attacks on non-native Kashmiri employees and members of minority communities. This week, Pandits in Budgam and Pulwama, Kashmir, were attacked with grenades. A grenade exploded on Monday, injuring Karan Kumar Singh in the Gopalpora neighborhood of Budgam. In Bandipora, on August 12, a migrant worker was shot and killed.
Pandits are understandably terrified. Terrorists appear to be going after all Pandits in the Kashmir Valley, according to the Kashmiri Pandit Sangarash Samiti (KPSS), an organization of Kashmiri Pandits who did not flee in the 1990s
The KPSS has issued a plea for all Pandits in the Kashmir region to leave the region immediately. Terrorists “have made it quite apparent they intend to kill all the Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir Valley with this latest round of killings,” said Sanjay Tickoo, chairman of the Kashmiri Pandit Solidarity Society (KPSS). To “murder their neighbors,” he claimed, it was ironic that local overground workers were collaborating with the terrorists.
No attacks were carried out in Kashmir during the Amarnath Yatra, so tourists can feel safe there, but Mr. Tickoo warns that local non-Muslims, especially Kashmiri Pandits, are at risk.
According to Mr. Tickoo, the government and the judicial system in the Kashmir Valley have failed spectacularly in their duty to safeguard the lives of Kashmiri Pandits.
Kashmiri Pandits should leave the region and not be duped by the false promises of locals. Mr. Tickoo warned that if Kashmiri Pandits did not leave the country, they would be massacred by religious extremists who had the backing of the public
In the meantime, Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha of Jammu and Kashmir, who went to see the hospitalized Pandit, stated, “I am horrified beyond words over the terrible terror attack on people in Shopian. Every single person on the planet should be strongly condemned the attack. Those terrorists responsible for this heinous crime will pay a heavy price.
There was widespread condemnation of the attack from political parties in J&K’s regions. Extremely saddened to learn of the recent targeted murder in Shopian. The Indian government keeps acting like an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand. For former Chief Minister and current People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti, every person living in Jammu and Kashmir is now “manufactured normalcy” in Delhi’s pursuit of peace.
Vice President of the National Conference Omar Abdullah said, “I condemn the militant attack in Shopian unequivocally.”
According to Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone, the attack was particularly diabolical. Another brazen terrorist attack in Shopian. What Mr. Lone called a “heinous act of violence,” the group strongly condemned.
The local Muslim community carried the body in a procession while shouting, “Stop the bloodshed” and other anti-violence messages. And they shouted that Hindus and Muslims are really just brothers and sisters.
ADGP Vijay Kumar expressed his gratitude to the locals who protested and spoke out against the massacre of unarmed persons.
Eyewitnesses say that Adil Wani, a resident of Kutpora in Shopian, and a member of the Al Badr terrorist group, was responsible for the attack. As for the second [assailant], he was a worker in the above-ground portion of the construction
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