SRINAGAR: Three workers of National Conference (NC) were on Friday shot at from point blank range by unknown gunmen in Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar. While two of them died soon after being admitted to a nearby hospital, the third is battling for life, the police and hospital sources said.
Srinagar’s SSP Imtiyaz Ismail said that the trio was sitting in a shop in City’s Qarfali Mohalla when targeted deliberately. He said, “These three people were fired upon while they were sitting in a shop. It appears they were targeted deliberately. It wasn’t a sort of indiscriminate act of firing. It looks they were seen sitting there and then targeted.”
The authorities have blamed the shooting on separatist militants. So far, none of the militant outfit active in the restive State has owned responsibility for killing and injuring the NC workers, however. The slain have been identified as Mushtaq Ahmed Wani and Nazir Ahmed Bhat while the injured as Shakeel Ahmed Zangoo. They were targeted by gunmen in Srinagar’s Karfali Mohalla, Habba Kadal, the police said. Zangoo, the police said, is also an aide of NC’s local MLA Shamima Firdous.
The police also said that a massive search operation has been launched in Habba Kadal area and its neighbourhood to capture the assailants dead or alive.
The incident comes ahead of the holding of elections in the first of the four-phase elections to urban local bodies in the State. The polling for the Srinagar municipal corporation is scheduled to be held on October 8.
The NC, the State’s oldest political party, is among major political parties which are boycotting the urban local bodies as well as panchayat elections in protest against New Delhi’s alleged ambiguity over the Article 35A and 370 of the Indian Constitution which guarantee special status to the State with the Indian union. The other parties which have stayed away from the democratic exercise include NC’s arch rival Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), the CPIM and BSP on the premise that the situation on the ground is not conductive for these elections.
A senior police official said that the attack on NC workers appears to be “a deliberate attempt on part of the militants to instil fear among the candidates and voters ahead of the elections” to urban local bodies and panchayats in the State. The separatists and supporting militants have asked people to boycott these elections on the premise that such exercises cannot be a substitute to the promised plebiscite to determine the political future of Jammu and Kashmir.
Former chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah condemned the killing and injuring the NC workers. “I cannot condemn strongly enough the murderous terrorist attack against three of my party workers. Nazir Ahmed Bhat (working in the office of MLA Shamima Firdous) & Mushtaq Ahmed Wani have been killed. Allah Jannat naseeb karey,” Omar who is also vice president of the NC wrote on Twitter.
He added, “I pray for his complete & speedy recovery. May the families of Nazir, Mushtaq & Shakeel find strength in this most difficult time.” Omar said.
The NC president Farooq Abdullah through party’s official Twitter handle expressed profound grief over the killing of Bhat and Wani. PDP president Ms. Mufti also took to the micro-blogging site Twitter.com to condemn the incident. She said, “Pained to hear about the killing of two NC workers. My heart goes out to their families & children. Cannot possibly imagine what they must be going through.”
Mr. Omar thanked Ms. Mufti, for her sharing the grief of the party and the victims’ families. In another tweet, he said, “Thank you for your kind words at this difficult time @MehboobaMufti Sahiba. I’m sure your message of support will give the family some strength at this difficult time.”
A delegation of the NC met Governor Satya Pal Malik to demand high level probe into the shooting incident and protection to NC workers.
Reiterating the demand, the party president Farooq Abdullah “People who have committed this dastardly act have no humanity. I empathize with the bereaved families and hope they overcome this trauma that has shattered their lives forever.”
Expressing anguish, he said that the party had already decided not to participate in the ongoing ULB and Panchayat polls and that such attack on NC workers must be thoroughly probed. “We demand high level, time bound, impartial probe into the incident. The guilty must not be spared,” he said.
Meanwhile, a CRPF jawan was injured in a grenade attack in Tral area of southern Pulwama district late Friday evening. The police said that suspected militants hurled at hand grenade towards a camp of the CRPF’s 180th Battalion in Tral town, resulting into the injuries to one of its jawans. End it
