Congress Sarpanch among 3 killed in Tral

PDP man survives bid on life; alert sounded across South Kashmir

SRINAGAR:  Unidentified gunmen have again struck in South Kashmir, killing at least three persons including a Sarpanch who belonged to the ruling Congress party. Elsewhere a Sarpanch survived bid on life as he gave slip to the assailants. Police sources said that suspected militants on Monday evening shot dead a village head (numberdar) Anwar Sheikh in Amlar village of Tral and barely an hour after fired at a Congress affiliate and Sarpanch Ghulam Nabi Mir from point blank range when he was at his home in Batpora village of Tral town. Mir and his son Firdous Mir sustained injuries. They were rushed to the hospitals where the doctors declared them brought dead.

 According to Inspector general of Police Kashmir Abdul Gani Mir all the three were killed by suspected militants. Army, Special Operation Group of Police and CRPF cordoned off both the areas and launched the manhunt to nab the suspected attackers.

 Hours after, police said, the twin attacks at Tral, suspected militants made an abortive attempt to kill another Sarpanch at Hakerpora village of the Pulwama district in south Kashmir late Monday evening.

Sources said that unknown gunmen surfaced in Hakerpora village 10:15 pm and tried to get hold of a sarpanch identified as Bashir Ahmad Malik son of Abdul Jabbar of Peoples Democratic Party.

However, on seeing the gunmen, the sarpanch fled from the spot, sources said.

Even as the gunmen fired few shots on Malik, he managed to escape unhurt, sources added.

Meanwhile, army and SOG rushed to the spot and cordoned off the whole village to nab the suspected gunmen.

Pertinently, on April 17 unknown gunmen had shot dead Muhammad Amin Pandit, a village head (Sarpanch) in the adjoining town of Awantipora. The police suspects that the militants are carrying out the attacks however no militant outfit active in Kashmir has claimed the responsibility for the killing.

The killings have scared thousands of panchayat(village council) members and their respective heads who have long been demanding personal security guards at par with legislators. This is reportedly the seventh panchayat member who has been killed since the Panchayat elections were held in April 2011. Ghulam Mohammad Lone, 45, was shot dead by the militants inside his residence at Kulpora village of the same Pulwama district last year on April 08. He belonged to the ruling National Conference. Another Sarpanch was killed last year in January. The killings of panchayat members had triggered a wave of resignations across Kashmir.

The panchayat elections were held in Kashmir in 2011  after a 10 year long break with a record 80% turnout.  Around 34,000 representatives were elected in the election which is only the third in 34 year old history of panchayat polls in the state.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has in past condemned such killings and promised to step up the security for the village heads.  “It is necessary to step up security measures to protect the sarpanches in the state,” he said on the sidelines of a “Students’ Parliament” organised by Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune, last year. However, Omar said there was a need to establish which elements were behind the killing, indicating the killings were the result of political rivalry rather than a militant action.

Despite suffering the worst security scenario the state’s fledgling Panchayat system has managed to stay on course. In December last, an overwhelming number of panches and sarpanches  defied threats and voted to elect candidates for the four Legislative Council seats under the Panchayat quota.  The polls for these seats were held after a gap of 38 years.

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