As the polling day nears in south Kashmir, a scary situation likely to affect the percentage of polling on April 24 is emerging in the region where Opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is fighting a prestigious battle against the ruling coalition’s candidate.
late on Thursday evening, unidentified gunmen shot dead a village representative belonging to the PDP at Gulzarpora village, 35 kilometres from here. The assailants sent a neighbour to call 45-year-old sarpanch Muhammad Amin Pandith and shot him moments after he stepped out of his house.
He was fired in neck and head and had died before his relatives took him to hospital.
This is the second such incident in the south Kashmir region in past six days. On April 13, militants attacked security guards at the residence of Youth National Conference leader Yawar Masoodi in Khrew pocket of Pampore constituency. Two policemen were killed in the attack but the NC leader escaped from the backdoor of his house. Police said the attackers were later killed in encounter at Indrus village and a rifle snatched from a slain cop was recovered from their possession.
The PDP and the NC are blaming each other for the attacks even as no militant group has claimed responsibility.
The attacks took place close on the heels of polling in south Kashmir scheduled on April 24 in the third of the 5-phased polling in the embattled State.
The PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, who is contesting herself from south Kashmir blamed the ruling NC for the killing of the Sarpanch. Talking to reporters she referred to NC president Farooq Abdullah’s statement in which he wished he had bombs and guns to target the PDP leaders who “deserve to be taught a lesson”.
She said that the PDP sarpach was killed during the same night when Abdullah issued the ‘warning’.
Nasir Aslam Wani, provincial president of the ruling party said that the slain sarpach was mulling to join the NC but he was killed. “If the PDP blames us for his killing, then there is no doubt that Khrew attack was their handiwork,” Wani told a news agency.
The pattern of attacks is similar to 2009 parliamentary polls when NC and PDP workers were killed in Tral and Pampore before the polling day. The killings created a frightening situation and affected the voter turnout.
Meanwhile, hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani reiterated his poll boycott call and asked the people to observe ‘civil curfew’ in the south Kashmir region on the polling day.
Condemning the attack on village representative, Rural Development Minister Ali Muhammad Sagar said that such incidents were totally against humanity and are carried out by the persons desiring to spread death and destruction in the State without caring for loss of human life.
Meanwhile, the ruling National Conference and State unit of CPI(M) also condemned the killing, saying such incidents were not acceptable in any civilised society.
“Such incidents are inhuman and unfortunate and the society must come out and express itself against such brutal acts of violence,” CPI(M) State secretary MY Tarigami said in a statement.