Vijay Kumar An SBI-led Elakwai Dehati Bank branch was shot dead in the morning at Kulgam in Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh. He was the eighth victim of targeted murder Kashmir Third non-Muslim government employee to die in terrorist attacks carried out in the Valley since May 1 and with increasing frequency.
The second person to die was Dilkhush, a brick kiln worker from Bihar, who was shot dead in Chadoora’s Magrepora. Budgam, the ninth non-local to be killed by terrorists on Thursday evening. Another laborer from Punjab, Goria, was injured in the attack.
Police said that the deceased bank manager Vijay Kumar was recently posted at Areh Mohanpora branch of the bank in Kulgam. They got married in February this year.
A little known terrorist organization called “Kashmir Freedom Fighters” had claimed responsibility for the murder of the bank manager. It made a statement saying that the Kulgam attack was an “intelligence-based operation” and “anyone involved in the demographic transformation of Kashmir will face the same fate”. The statement, named KFF spokesperson Wasim Mir, said: “So it is an eye-opener to all those non-locals who are living in fool’s paradise that the Modi-led government will settle them here, this is just a Illusion is… (sic).” It said that he “must now understand the reality that it will cost him his life”.
Due to attacks on non-Kashmiri government employees, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has ordered the transfer of all migrant employees from the Union Territory to their respective district headquarters for security by June 6.
CCTV footage showed that a man in a T-shirt and trousers, believed to be a terrorist, probably entered the bank branch for the first time to locate his target, the manager. After this he left the bank and after a few minutes came again with a pistol and a bag. The footage showed the terrorist targeting Kumar from close range while the manager was talking on his cell phone. Police said Kumar was immediately rushed to Kulgam district hospital where he was declared brought dead.
Non-Kashmiris were killed after civilian Farooq Ahmed Sheikh was shot dead in Shopian’s Rakh-e-Chidren area on Thursday. According to the police, the terrorists shot Ahmed in the leg late Wednesday evening.
Rajni Bala, a 36-year-old Dalit female teacher from Jammu’s Samba district, was shot dead outside a government school on Tuesday morning. GopalporaIn Kulgam district of South Kashmir, when her husband dropped her at the gate. Rajini’s killing drew widespread condemnation from members of the minority community in Jammu and Kashmir, who have returned to Kashmir under the PM rehabilitation package and are working in the Kashmir Valley in various departments.
The bank manager is the first migrant victim in June, the laborers of Bihar second. Of the seven targeted killings in May, three victims were off-duty policemen and four were civilians, including TV artist Amrina Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit government clerk. Rahul Bhati and schoolteacher Rajni Bala.
Rajni Bala was the second deadly terror attack on a woman in May. Rajni and her husband Raj were posted in government schools in Kulgam; She lived there for seven years with her husband and their daughter, 13.
Rajni’s brother-in-law Vijay Kumar, a veterinarian, said the couple had spoken about “outsiders” living in fear in the Valley when the family visited their native village Nanke Chak in Samba two months ago. Rajni’s father-in-law Ram Lal had said that they were scared and asked the couple to request a transfer to a safer place. This fear was a result of heightened terrorist attacks against migrants and citizens from outside Kashmir, who had come in search of jobs or found employment through the government reservation programme.
Seven civilians were killed in October 2021 – among them a Kashmiri Pandit, the principal of a Sikh school in Srinagar and two non-local Hindus. In addition, 14 Hindus have been murdered in Kashmir between August 2019 and March 2022.
Rajni Bala’s death triggered protests in Samba amid renewed calls for police protection for “migrant” government employees, especially those from the minority Hindu community, and demands that they be shifted to Jammu or elsewhere. be given.
Women have been particularly vulnerable after TV artist and singer Amrina Bhat (35) was shot dead by terrorists at Hushru in Chadoora area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district on May 25. He was targeted for acting and singing, which was considered “immoral” by terrorist organizations. organization.
Intelligence sources said the targeting of soft targets like unarmed civilians, especially migrants, is part of a new plan devised by Pakistan’s ISI to target terrorists in Kashmir. The Pakistani spy agency hopes to play off local fear against migrant workers, and thereby revive support against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
watch Targeted killings: Bihar laborer shot dead in Budgam