News Analysis India

Tag: Kashmir civilian deaths

  • NIA likely to take over Kashmir civilian killings probe

    By IANS

    NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is likely to hand over the probe of recent civilian killings in Kashmir to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), sources in the security set up said here on Tuesday.

    According to sources, the investigation in these killings indicate a definite pattern leading to the terror angle, therefore, the investigation may be assigned to the national anti-terror probe agency.

    They also said that this issue was discussed threadbare in the National Security Strategy Conference held on Monday wherein Union Home Minister Amit Shah discussed it with all stakeholders in detail.

    Another source in the government set up said that civilian killings in Kashmir have given a wrong signal and most of the migrant labourers and non-Kashmiris are leaving Kashmir leading to a sense of fear among the local residents too.

    These gruesome incidents have also spread fear among the Kashmiris Pandits who were willing to go back to the valley on behest of the government initiatives.

    The local NIA team has already been assisting the J&K Police in the killings probe and trying to identify the masterminds behind these killings.

    The sources also said that the central agencies have been scanning the old cases of stone pelters as targeted killings revealed that these killers are not from the regular terrorists’ cadre.

    “The probe agency will take over the cases of Kashmiri Pandit Pharmaceutical dealer Makhan Lal Bindroo; Virendra Paswan, a non-Kashmiri street vendor from Bihar and the other labourers,” the senior officials added.

    The NIA Director General Kuldeep Singh visited Srinagar on Monday and reportedly discussed the situation with other security stakeholders.

    Singh, who is also the DG of the CRPF which is playing a major counter terror operation in the valley, has also directed the force to re-strategise the operation against the terror groups in the valley.

    So far, 11 civilians have been killed in the last 16 days.

  • Amid civilian killings, migrant workers say ‘too much fear’, as they board trains out of Kashmir

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: It was cold under the open skies but the group of migrant workers at the station here bore the chill autumn winds with stoicism through the night, the presence of security forces dispelling somewhat the fear that was propelling them to leave Kashmir ahead of schedule.

    Anxious to return home after the spate of killings targeting minorities, non-locals and other civilians in the Valley, about 50 migrant labourers, many of them from Bihar, arrived at the Nowgam railway station late on Monday night from nearby Budgam district where they worked in brick kilns.

    “We spent the night in the open but we felt more secure due to the presence of security forces guarding the railway station,” Mithilesh Kumar told PTI at the station on Tuesday.

    “We are leaving Kashmir earlier than usual. There is too much fear, ” he added.

    Trains are the preferred route out of the Valley with many saying they will ensure their safety for the rest of the journey.

    Kumar said the group will take a train to Banihal on the other side of the Pir Panjal range and then catch a taxi or bus to Jammu for the onward journey to Bihar.

    “Nobody told us to leave but who will be responsible if someone among us gets killed. One moment we are told security will be provided and the next we are on our own,” said Deepak Kumar, a resident of Bihar’s Madhubani district.

    On Sunday, two labourers from Bihar were gunned down when terrorists barged into their accommodation in Kulgam district, taking the number of civilians killed in targeted attacks in Jammu and Kashmir this month to 11.

    Another labourer sustained bullet injuries.

    The killings of civilians have led to many migrant workers making their way back home though many in the city have decided to stay on in the search for work.

    The money, they said, is better and the local residents are kind.

    The workers at Nowgam station, waiting to board a train out, agreed.

    Many praised the locals and said they ensured the group reached the station safely.

    “People of Kashmir are kind but few people do politics and the masses have to suffer,” Deepak Kumar said.

    There were also reports of migrant labourers from other parts of the Valley leaving in taxis and buses early in the morning.

    However, hundreds could also be seen at major intersections in the city, hoping to be hired for work.

    Hawal Chowk, rechristened Bihari Chowk by city dwellers, has not witnessed any significant decrease in the number of migrant workers there.

    The first migrant worker — Virender Paswan — was shot dead by militants in Hawal area.

    The scenes were no different at Rambagh, less than two kilometres from where prominent Kashmiri Pandit businessman Makhan Lal Bindroo was shot dead at point blank range in his shop earlier this month.

    Lakhs of labourers from different parts of the country come to the Valley every year in early March for skilled and unskilled jobs such as masonry, carpentry, welding and farming, and go back home before the onset of winter in November.

    This year, however, several are choosing to go back before they had planned to.

    On Monday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar condemned the targeted killing of Bihari migrant workers in Jammu and Kashmir and said the incidents had created an “environment of fear”.

    He also spoke to Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and said senior Bihar officials are in touch with their counterparts in the union territory.

  • Kashmir civilian killings: At least 500 people detained in J&K in sweeping crackdown amid ‘targetted’ deaths

    By Associated Press

    SRINAGAR: Government forces have detained at least 500 people in a sweeping crackdown in Indian-controlled Kashmir, local officials said Sunday, following a string of suspected militant attacks and targeted killings in the disputed region.

    Assailants fatally shot three Hindus and a Sikh person in the region’s main city of Srinagar this week in a sudden rise in violence against civilians that both pro-and anti-India Kashmiri politicians widely condemned.

    Local police blamed the spate of killings on militants fighting against Indian rule in the region for decades. Officials said they had detained in the last three days over 500 people across the Kashmir Valley for questioning, with the majority of detainees from the main city of Srinagar.

    ALSO READ | Kashmir civilian killings: NIA carries out searches in several places in J&K, arrest 2 ‘TRF ‘operatives’

    Police say militants belonging to The Resistance Front, or TRF, rebel group have shot and killed seven people since last week, pushing up the death toll from such attacks this year to 28 people. While 21 of those slain were Muslims, seven of them belonged to Hindu and Sikh minority communities.

    Speaking with reporters recently, the region’s top police officer Dilbag Singh described the killings as a “conspiracy to create terror and communal rift.”

    On Thursday, TRF in a statement on social media claimed the group was targeting those working for Indian authorities, and was not picking targets based on faith. The rebel group’s statement could not be independently verified.

    Indian officials say TRF is the local front for Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group that is based in Pakistan. The cell was formed after India stripped in 2019 the region of its semi-autonomous status, scrapped its statehood, and undertook a massive security and communications lockdown for months.

    ALSO READ |  ‘Some have started leaving’: Kashmiri Pandits fear 1990 rerun as attack on minorities rises in J&K

    Kashmir has remained on edge ever since as authorities also put in place a slew of new laws, which critics and many Kashmiris fear could change the region’s demographics.

    This last week’s killings appeared to trigger widespread fear among minority communities, with many Hindu families opting to leave the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley. Those killed included a prominent Kashmiri Hindu chemist, two schoolteachers of the Hindu and Sikh faiths, and a Hindu street food vendor from India’s eastern state of Bihar.

    According to police, those detained in the ensuing crackdown include members of religious groups, anti-India activists and “overground workers,” a term Indian authorities use for militant sympathizers and collaborationists.

    The Himalayan territory of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan. Both the nuclear-armed arch-rival powers claim it in its entirety.

    Rebels in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

  • Kashmir civilian killings: At least 500 people detained in J&K amid sweeping crackdown on ‘targetted’ deaths

    By Associated Press

    SRINAGAR: Government forces have detained at least 500 people in a sweeping crackdown in Indian-controlled Kashmir, local officials said Sunday, following a string of suspected militant attacks and targeted killings in the disputed region.

    Assailants fatally shot three Hindus and a Sikh person in the region’s main city of Srinagar this week in a sudden rise in violence against civilians that both pro-and anti-India Kashmiri politicians widely condemned.

    Local police blamed the spate of killings on militants fighting against Indian rule in the region for decades. Officials said they had detained in the last three days over 500 people across the Kashmir Valley for questioning, with the majority of detainees from the main city of Srinagar.

    ALSO READ | Kashmir civilian killings: NIA carries out searches in several places in J&K, arrest 2 ‘TRF ‘operatives’

    Police say militants belonging to The Resistance Front, or TRF, rebel group have shot and killed seven people since last week, pushing up the death toll from such attacks this year to 28 people. While 21 of those slain were Muslims, seven of them belonged to Hindu and Sikh minority communities.

    Speaking with reporters recently, the region’s top police officer Dilbag Singh described the killings as a “conspiracy to create terror and communal rift.”

    On Thursday, TRF in a statement on social media claimed the group was targeting those working for Indian authorities, and was not picking targets based on faith. The rebel group’s statement could not be independently verified.

    Indian officials say TRF is the local front for Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group that is based in Pakistan. The cell was formed after India stripped in 2019 the region of its semi-autonomous status, scrapped its statehood, and undertook a massive security and communications lockdown for months.

    ALSO READ |  ‘Some have started leaving’: Kashmiri Pandits fear 1990 rerun as attack on minorities rises in J&K

    Kashmir has remained on edge ever since as authorities also put in place a slew of new laws, which critics and many Kashmiris fear could change the region’s demographics.

    This last week’s killings appeared to trigger widespread fear among minority communities, with many Hindu families opting to leave the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley. Those killed included a prominent Kashmiri Hindu chemist, two schoolteachers of the Hindu and Sikh faiths, and a Hindu street food vendor from India’s eastern state of Bihar.

    According to police, those detained in the ensuing crackdown include members of religious groups, anti-India activists and “overground workers,” a term Indian authorities use for militant sympathizers and collaborationists.

    The Himalayan territory of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan. Both the nuclear-armed arch-rival powers claim it in its entirety.

    Rebels in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

  • Kashmir civilian killings: NIA carries out searches in several places in J&K, arrest 2 ‘TRF ‘operatives’

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday carried out raids at several places in Kashmir valley and arrested two ‘operatives’ of The Resistance Front (TRF), considered a shadow outfit of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba terror group, which has claimed responsibility for a spate of targeted civilian killings.

    An NIA spokesperson said that the searches were carried with the assistance of CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police at seven locations in Kulgam, Srinagar and Baramulla districts.

    ALSO READ | Kashmiri Pandits in US condemn targeted civilian killings; ask India to re-evaluate J&K policy

    A case was initially registered at Bahu Fort police station relating to the recovery of an IED from a Lashker-e-Taiba terrorist in Bathindi, Jammu on June 27 for indulging in terrorist acts in the Union territory.

    The NIA had registered the case again and arrested three terrorists.

    Investigation has revealed that Pakistan-based handlers of LeT and their associates based in Jammu and Kashmir had conspired to cause extensive terror activities for harming the public, the spokesperson said.

    ALSO READ |  ‘Some have started leaving’: Kashmiri Pandits fear 1990 rerun as attack on minorities rises in J&K

    They had planned that responsibility for the terrorist acts would be taken by the pseudo-acronym TRF to maintain plausible deniability and evade law enforcement agencies.

    During the searches, many digital devices, including mobiles, pen drives, data storage devices and other incriminating materials were recovered, the spokesperson said.

    During the course of the searches, two TRF operatives, Tawseef Ahmed Wani from Baramulla in North Kashmir and Faiz Ahmed Khan from Wampora in Anantnag of South Kashmir, were arrested for their involvement in the conspiracy, the spokesperson added.