Another targeted attack in Kashmir, teacher from Jammu shot dead

A teacher from Jammu was shot dead on a school campus at Gopalpora in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam on Tuesday in the latest in a series of targeted attacks in the region.

Police said the teacher, whose identity was not immediately known, was a Hindu and a resident of Samba (Jammu), and that terrorists involved in the terror attack will be identified and neutralised soon. They earlier said the teacher received critical gunshot injuries and was being shifted to a hospital. Police said the attack scene has been cordoned off.

The attack in Kulgam came amid protests by Kashmiri Pandit employees for relocation from the Valley to safer places. The protests were triggered after the killing of Rahul Bhat, a Pandit employee, in Chadoora on May 12. Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandit employees deputed in the Valley under the Prime Minister’s package for the rehabilitation of the community in 2008 have been holding sit-in protests across Kashmir and boycotting their duties.

The teacher was killed days after Amreen Bhat, a 35-year-old artist, was shot dead and her 10-year-old nephew was wounded when terrorists attacked them at their home in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district on Wednesday last. Apart from her TV appearances, Bhat was popular on YouTube and Instagram for her videos.

An off-duty police constable, Saifullah Qadri, was earlier killed and his nine-year-old daughter was injured after terrorists fired at them in Srinagar on Tuesday last.

Qadri’s murder was the seventh killing of a police officer in Kashmir this year and the third in Srinagar this month. On May 13, special police officer Riyaz Ahmad Thoker was shot dead in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

Ranjit Singh, 52, who was also from the Jammu region, was killed in a grenade attack inside a wine shop in Baramulla this month days Bhat was shot dead.

Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti condemned the teacher’s killing and hit out at the Centre over “fake claims” about Kashmir being normal. She added it is obvious that targeted civilian killings are on the rise and a deep cause of concern. Mufti said this “act of cowardice” sadly plays “into the vicious anti-Muslim narrative spun” by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Another former chief minister Omar Abdullah said: “This is yet another targeted killing in a long list of recent attacks directed at unarmed civilians. Words of condemnation & condolence ring hollow as do the assurances of the government that they will not rest till situation normalises. May the deceased rest in peace.”