Spike in militant violence targeting Kashmiri civilians

More and more civilians are being targeted by militants in the Kahmir Valley with such incidents witnessing a steep hike even during the Ramadan ceasefire, sources said on Monday.

In the latest case of civilians being at the receiving end of militants, the sources said, four terrorists on Sunday barged into the house of a PDP worker, Abdul Majid Dofru, in a north Kashmir village and hacked his wife Shakeela Begum to death.

The sources said the militants tried to abduct the PDP worker but his wife intervened to rescue her husband at the cost of her own life.

The incident came two days after a civilian, Ashraf Thokar, was shot at in south Kashmir Bijbehara, the home town of PDP chief and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

Thokar received multiple wounds on his legs and is being treated at SKIMS Hospital here.

Earlier on July 5, Constable Javed Ahmed Dar was abducted from his house in Shopian in south Kashmir.

His body was recovered the next day. Dar was involved in number of anti-terror operations and was in personnel protection detail of Shopian police chief.

On June 29, terrorists barged into Pulwama resident Ayoob Wagay's house and beat him and his family.

Mohammed Iqbal Kawa of Kulgam was killed by terrorists on June 17 and his body perforated with bullets was recovered from near his village in the south Kashmir district.

On June 14, six to eight terrorists entered the house of Ghulam Nabi Mir of Nilur in Pulwama and beat him up and his family members, suspecting them to be police informers.

On the same day, the shop of Kifayat Ahmed Mir of Molu Chhitragam in Shopian was set on fire by some militants for none of his faults even as they alleged that he had been working as an informer with security forces.

In another case, some militants fired upon Manzoor Ahmed Pandit, who runs a hardware store near Kakapore Chowk in Anantnag on June 8.

On May 25, when Ramadan was at its peak and the faithful were praying, militants abducted Yaqoob Wagay of Hajin in Bandipore district. His bullet-ridden body, which also bore torture marks, was recovered a day later.

The sources said security forces after the ceasefire period have now upped the offensive against militants to curb violence against civilians in the Kashmir Valley.

--IANS

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