Suspected militants on Tuesday killed three persons in separate incidents in two districts of Jammu and Kashmir, the police said.
A Kashmiri Pandit pharmacist, identified as 68-year-old Makhan Lal Bindroo, and Virender Paswan, a street vendor from Bihar’s Bhagalpur district were killed in Srinagar.
A third civilian, Mohammad Shafi Lone, was shot dead in Bandipora district. He was a resident of Naidkhai village in the Shahgund area, the police said.
Bindroo was shot while he was working in his pharmacy, PTI reported, citing a police official.
The police said that Bindroo was taken to a hospital after the attack, but he succumbed to his injuries.
Paswan was killed near Madina Chowk in Srinagar’s Lalbazar, according to the police. He had been staying at Alamgari Bazar in the city’s Zadibal area. He used to sell bhelpuri at a roadside stall in Srinagar, according to Global News Service.
The Resistance Front, an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, has claimed responsibility for the killings of Bindroo and Lone. The organisation accused both of them of helping the central government and said that it had warned them not to do so in the past.
The police said that they have registered cases on the killings.
“Investigation is in progress and officers continue to work to establish the full circumstances of these terror crimes,” the police said in a statement. “The respective areas have been cordoned and search in these areas is going on.”
Political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir said that such acts of violence had “no place in our society”.
“Even the words of condemnation and condolence after these militant attacks start to sound hollow,” National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said on Twitter. “May Allah grant the deceased Jannat.”
On Bindroo’s killing, Peoples Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti said that he had chosen to stay in Kashmir even during the peak of the insurgency in the region. “May his family find the strength to deal with this loss,” she said in a tweet.
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