Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Oct.19: India’s counter-terrorism agency, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), will investigate the targeted death of four civilians in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the information received by the sources on Tuesday morning. The Union Home Ministry has asked the NIA to look into the bigger plot behind the killings.
The agency would take up investigations into the deaths of Makhan Lal Bindroo, Virender Paswan, Supinder Kaur, and Deepak Chand, as well as two Bihar labourers.
The most recent reported deaths were two Bihar labourers, Raja Rishidev and Yogendra Rishidev, who were shot dead by terrorists in Wanpoh, Kulgam district, on Sunday.
A golgappa seller from Bihar and a carpenter from Uttar Pradesh were shot and killed in the Valley the day before. Arbind Kumar Sah, a golgappa vendor, was shot at point-blank range in Srinagar, while Sagir Ahmad, a carpenter, was killed in Pulwama, according to police.
ML Bindroo, a prominent member of the Kashmiri Pandit community and the owner of a pharmacy in Srinagar, was one of three people killed on October 5 – when the wave of attacks began.
Mohammad Shafi Lone, a cab driver from Bandipore, and Virender Paswan, a street food vendor from Bihar, were among the others slain that day.
Supinder Kaur and Deepak Chand, two teachers at a government school in Srinagar, were shot and killed two days later, on October 7. They were Sikhs and Hindus from Kashmir’s minority communities.
Five of those killed thus far are from other states, and no particular community appears to have been targeted as Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs are among those slaughtered.
In any case, the assassinations have instilled dread in the Valley, forcing a mass flight of Kashmiri Pandit families from transit camps. Hundreds of families have gone, including those of government workers who returned after receiving jobs through the Prime Minister’s special initiative.
Migrant labourers and workers from neighbouring states have also begun to flee J&K; one of the victims’ neighbours said he was fleeing because he was afraid for his family’s safety.
Security forces have launched a significant crackdown, detaining over 900 persons for alleged ties to separatist groups such as the banned Jamaat-e-Islami. Some of the attacks have also been attributed to ‘The Resistance Front,’ a suspected offshoot of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Anti-terror operations have also been stepped up, with two terrorists slain in Pulwama area on Saturday, including a Lashkar commander. Two terrorists reportedly engaged in the killings of two civilians and an officer were slain in back-to-back incidents the day before, according to authorities.
Last Monday, police announced that they had killed the terrorist responsible for the cab driver’s death.
The strikes came while the army is in the midst of one of its longest and most difficult anti-terrorist operations in the Poonch district, where nine Indian troops have been killed in such ferocious fighting that Army and police sources assume they were trained by Pakistani commandos.
