International Desk :
A street food vendor and a carpenter-both outsiders-have been shot dead in the latest spate of attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Shockingly, the civilian death toll from what police called terror attacks has risen to nine in the past two weeks, according to NDTV.
Five of the nine victims were not Muslims, a clear indication that Hindus and outsiders are the main target of the attacks.
Arbind Kumar Sah, the hawker selling food, who is from Bihar, was shot at a point-blank range in Srinagar. A carpenter from Uttar Pradesh, Sagir Ahmad, was shot dead in Pulwama.
“Terrorists fired at two non-local labourers in Srinagar and Pulwama. Arbind Kumar Sah from Banka in Bihar died in Srinagar and Sagir Ahmad from Uttar Pradesh is critically injured in Pulwama. Areas have been sealed and searches are on,” the police said in a tweet on Saturday. Also Read – Hindus fearful in Indian Kashmir after wave of assassinations
About an hour later, the police said Ahmad succumbed to the bullet injuries.
A spate of targeted civilian killings in Kashmir had led to exodus of several Kashmiri Pandits living in transit camps over a week ago.
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Dozens of families – many government employees who returned to the valley after being given jobs under the Prime Minister’s special employment scheme for Kashmiri migrants – have quietly left accommodations.
“Strongly condemn the killing of street vendor Arbind Kumar in a terror attack in Srinagar today. This is yet another case of a civilian being targeted like this. All Arbind Kumar did was come to Srinagar in search of earning opportunities and it’s reprehensible that he was murdered,” former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted.
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Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference leader Sajad Lone tweeted, “This is pure terror. Yet again a non-local vendor shot and killed in Idgah. What a shame. How cowardly can it get.”
The police had launched a massive crackdown and detained some 900 people across Jammu and Kashmir for their suspected links with separatists.
Tensions have soared after Hindu-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked Kashmir’s semi-autonomy in August 2019.
Nearly 200 people, including 157 soldiers and rebels, have been killed in the violence in Kashmir this year so far, according to an AFP tally.
