Terrorists gun down two non-local street hawkers in Jammu and Kashmir in back-to-back attacks

Two non-native vendors have been shot dead by terrorists on Saturday in Srinagar, making this the ninth such killing in the past two weeks.

The victims, identified as Arbind Kumar Sah, from Bihar’s Banka, was a paani-puri hawker and was gunned down in the Eidgah area of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Kashmir Zone Police, in a tweet, also confirmed that another labourer, Sagir Ahmad of Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, has also succumbed to his injuries after being shot at in Pulwama.

#NonLocal labourer Shri Sagir Ahmad of Saharanpur, UP who was #critically injured in a #terror attack in Pulwama, also #succumbed to his injuries. Search operations are in progress. Further details shall follow. @JmuKmrPolice https://t.co/5q5TUQbRnl

— Kashmir Zone Police (@KashmirPolice) October 16, 2021

The police added that they have cordoned off the areas and search operations have begun.

Leaders from political parties quickly condemned the incident, with Sajad Lone of the Peoples Conference tweeting, “This is pure terror. Yet again a golgappa vendor shot and killed in Idgah. What a shame. How cowardly can it get.”

This is pure terror. Yet again a non local vendor shot and killed in Idgah.

What a shame. How cowardly can it get.

— Sajad Lone (@sajadlone) October 16, 2021

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also condemned the killing in a tweet.

Strongly condemn the killing of street vendor Arvind Kumar in a terror attack in Srinagar today. This is yet another case of a civilian being targeted like this. All Arvind Kumar did was come to Srinagar in search of earning opportunities & it’s reprehensible that he was murdered

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) October 16, 2021

Earlier, on 7 October, two government school teachers, including a woman, had been killed by terrorists in the Eidgah area of the city. The deceased had been identified as Supinder Kour, a resident of Alochi Bagh area of the city, and Deepak Chand, a resident of Jammu. They were working as teachers at Government Boys School, Sangam.

Prior to that on 2 October, Majid Ahmad Gojri, a resident of Chattabal Srinagar, was shot dead at Karan Nagar. Later that night, another civilian Mohammad Shafi Dar, resident of Batamaloo, was shot at and injured at SD Colony Batamaloo. He succumbed to injuries a few hours later.

There has been a spate of attacks on minorities in the Valley. On 5 October, three civilians, including Makhan Lal Bindroo , owner of Srinagar’s most famous pharmacy, were killed by terrorists within two hours in separate incidents in Srinagar and Bandipora districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

With inputs from agencies