Terrorists have killed two non-local Hindu workers in a midnight grenade attack on Monday in Shopian district of southern Kashmir.
Official sources said that unidentified terrorists, suspected to be the local cadre of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, lobbed a hand grenade inside the residential place of the non-local workers at Harmain, a village bordering Shopian and Kulgam districts. Two non-local workers, Monish Kumar and Ram Sagar of Kanooj UP, sustained critical injuries. They were rushed to a local hospital where they both succumbed to injuries.
The Jammu and Kashmir subsequently claimed to have arrested one Imran Bashir Ganai of Harmain who, it claimed, was a “hybrid terrorist of LeT” who had lobbed the grenade. Police said that further investigation was underway as raids were going on at the militant hideouts.
According to official sources, currently around 3 lakh non-local migratory labourers and vendors are as usual present in the valley. Of them, over 2 lakh are working in Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama districts. Most of the valley’s brick kilns, hot mix macadam plants and apple orchards are in the same areas of South Kashmir.
Close on the heels of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s successful visit to Jammu and Kashmir, in which he addressed two massive public rallies at Rajouri and Baramulla and asserted that terrorism would be firmly wiped out without any dialogue with Pakistan, terrorists have mounted attacks on soft targets. While a resident Kashmiri Pandit, Puran Kumar Bhat, was shot dead at his home in Choudhri Gund, Shopian, on 15 October, two non-local Hindu workers were killed in a grenade attack at Harmain, Shopian, on 17 October.
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‘Kashmir Freedom Fighters’, which according to the authorities is a front for Jaish-e-Mohammad, claimed responsibility in a statement that appeared in the social media immediately after Bhat’s killing. Even before any outfit claimed responsibility, Police said that the grenade attack at Harmain had been executed by the LeT.
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