Two days after the killing of three people including prominent Kashmiri Pandit businessman Makhan Lal Bindroo, two teachers were gunned down on Thursday by terrorists at a government school in the Eidgah Sangam area of Srinagar. Of the two government teachers killed in terror attacks, one is a Kashmiri Pandit and the other is a Sikh woman.
“At about 11:15 am, terrorists shot dead two school teachers at Sangam Eidgah in Srinagar district,” a police official said. He said the area has been cordoned off and a hunt has been launched to nail the attackers.
Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh claimed that the incidents were an attempt to create communal disharmony in the Valley. He said that these attacks were being carried out on the instructions of agencies in Pakistan.
“These recent incidents of targeting civilians are to create an atmosphere of fear, communal disharmony here. This is a conspiracy to target the local ethos & values & defame local Kashmiri muslims. This is being done on instructions from agencies in Pakistan,” said Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah expressed grief on the brazen killings. “Shocking news coming in again from Srinagar. Another set of targeted killings, this time of two teachers in a Govt school in Idgah area of the city. Words of condemnation are not enough for this inhuman act of terror but I pray for the souls of the deceased to rest in peace,” he tweeted.
The fresh killings come less than 48 hours after Bindroo, a Kashmiri Pandit, was gunned down by terrorists at his pharmacy in Srinagar. Bindroo was one of the few in his community who did not migrate out of Kashmir at the onset of militancy in 1990. He stayed back along with his wife to continue operating his business, which was a trusted name for quality medicines.
Barely a few minutes after the killing of Bindroo, militants gunned down a roadside vendor identified as Virendra Paswan, a resident of Bhagalpur in Bihar, near Hawal Chowk in Srinagar. Militants also shot dead Mohammad Shafi Lone at Naidkhai in Bandipora district of north Kashmir.