Kashmiri Pandit Killing: Another targeted killing; Kashmiri Pandit shot dead by terrorists, brother critical | Srinagar News

SRINAGAR: Terrorists shot dead a Kashmiri Pandit man and wounded his younger brother on Tuesday when they were tending their orchard at Chotigam village in south Kashmir’s Shopian district in another instance of targeted strike against the Valley’s minority community.
Sunil Kumar Nath, 45, died instantly in a hail of bullets while sibling Pintoo Kumar, 35, is in hospital with critical bullet wounds. A search has been launched to catch the killers.
Sources said a masked terrorist, presumably a Pakistani, and a Kashmiri accomplice sneaked up on the Nath brothers when they were pruning an overgrowth of willow trees on the orchard with the help of three local hands. The terrorists told the hired hands to leave before the masked man shot at the brothers.

Villagers said the slain brother is survived by his wife and three school-going daughters.
J&K has recorded a string of attacks over the past week amid heightened security for Independence Day. Migrant worker Mohammad Amrej, 19, from Bihar’s Madhepura was killed at his rented house in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district around 1am on Friday, while a special police officer (SPO) was wounded in a separate attack in Anantnag later in the afternoon. Amrej was the fourth migrant worker killed in a targeted attack in Kashmir this year.
On August 15, terrorists struck twice with grenades—one at the high-security police control room in Srinagar and another at Chadoora in Budgam district. Besides, J&K police constable Sarfaraz Ahmad died in hospital from wounds suffered during an attack on a police patrol Sunday in Nowhatta of downtown Srinagar.

A total of 15 civilians and six security forces personnel have been killed in targeted attacks this year.
Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha condoled the death in Chotigam, a predominantly Kashmiri Pandit village of around 30 people who chose to stay behind when tens of thousands from the community fled the Valley during the peak of militancy in the 1990s. They own large orchards of apples and other fruits, while some are in the pharmaceutical business.
“Pained beyond words… My thoughts are with the family of Sunil Kumar. Praying for speedy recovery of injured,” Sinha tweeted. The assailants won’t be spared, he said.

Authorities have provided security to the Kashmiri Pandit families of Chotigam as they have been picked out by terrorists before. This April, 39-year-old Sonu Bhat aka Bal Krishan, a popular chemist at Chotigam who helped people even at midnight, suffered four bullet wounds in a terrorist strike.
Records show 14 Kashmiri Pandits and others from the minority community were killed in J&K in targeted terrorist attacks since August 2019. But the attacks have been more frequent since last autumn when Srinagar chemist Makhan Lal Bindroo was gunned down on October 5, a street vendor from Bihar was killed hours later, and two teachers—a Hindu and a Sikh—were shot inside a school on the outskirts of Srinagar on October 7.
The attacks continued, setting off panic and protests. The murder of schoolteacher Rajni Bala and revenue clerk Rahul Bhat this May led to widespread unease, particularly among the region’s religious minorities.
The state units of BJP, Congress, Apni Party and Shiv Sena (Thackeray), National Conference as well as Panun Kashmir, an organisation of Kashmiri Pandits, condemned Tuesday’s Chotigam murder. Congress, Sena and Panun Kashmir blamed the Centre for repeated attacks on Kashmiri Pandits, while Apni Party said the killings are aimed at promoting hate.
BJP state chief Ravinder Rana slammed “cowardly Pakistani terrorists” for the attack. “Two brothers—Kashmiri Hindus—were targeted by coward Pakistani terrorists. Pakistan wants bloodbath in Kashmir, Pakistan terrorists are enemies of people of Kashmir,” he said.
Panun Kashmir president Virender Raina said the problem isn’t about development or economic, but radicalisation and Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Unless these two are crushed with an iron hand, things won’t improve in J&K, he said.
(Inputs from Sanjay Khajuria in Jammu)
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