Massive protests in J&K over targetted killings of civilians by terrorists

Scores of people in Srinagar and Jammu hit the streets against the recent target killings of civilians by terrorists, with a majority of the victims being non-Muslims. Slogans of "we want justice" were raised during the funeral procession of Supinder Kaur, a teacher who was shot dead by terrorists inside a government higher secondary school in the Eidgah area yesterday. Another teacher was killed by terrorists in the same school. While Supinder was principal of the school, the second deceased person was a Kashmiri Pandit, Deepak Chand.

A couple of days ago, terrorists killed a local Pandit, ML Bindroo, a street vendor who belonged to Bihar and a local taxi driver in Srinagar.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has said that the administration takes responsibility for not being able to prevent the recent terror attacks in Kashmir, even though there were no specific inputs in this regard.

The L-G said this is a deliberate attempt to disrupt the tourist inflow and industrial investment coming to Kashmir by elements across the border and within Jammu and Kashmir who want to escalate terrorism.

"It is an attempt to disrupt the communal fabric of Jammu and Kashmir," he said while paying homage to the deceased and promised that killers won't be spared.

In the past few days, civilians have been targeted, including prominent Kashmiri chemist ML Bindroo, Virinder Paswan, a vendor, and Mohammad Shafi. Supinder Kaur and Deepak Chand were gunned down at a school in Srinagar on Thursday.

According to IG Kashmir Vijay Kumar, a total of 28 civilians have been killed by terrorists in Kashmir in 2021. Out of the 28, five persons belonged to the local Hindu/Sikh community while two were non-local Hindu labourers. He said the terrorist handlers across the border have been frustrated by the successful operations against them and the elimination of many militants in Kashmir, which has led them to change their strategy and target civilians belonging to the minority communities, including women.