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| Gunmen open fire on police guarding Kashmiri Pandits in Shopian village | | Firing leads to fear, panic among Pandits | | Jehangir Rashid
SRINAGAR, Sept 2: Suspected militants resorted to indiscriminate on police personnel guarding the cluster of houses of Kashmiri Pandits in a village in the South Kashmir's Shopian district. The firing led to fear among the Kashmiri Pandits putting up in the village.
Sources told Early Times that a group of gunmen started firing on one of the two pickets guarding Kashmiri Pandits in the Pargachoo village of Shopian district on Sunday night. The firing continued for about half an hour and led to fear among the people putting up there. It was only after many hours that situation turned normal in the area.
"At about 9:45 PM there was heavy burst of gunfire in the village as the gunmen targeted one of the police pickets. The Kashmiri Pandits were terrified due to the firing and fear was written largely on their faces. Nobody came out of their houses at the time of firing and people came out only when the firing stopped in the village," said the sources.
Sources said that gunmen targeted the police located on this side of a river flowing in the Pargachoo village while the second picket on the other side of river did not come under fire. The police cops returned the fire and the gunshots rattled the ambience of the village giving an impression that an encounter is on.
Some of the reports said that gunmen once again resorted to firing during the night on the police picket thus leading to fear among the inhabitants once again. This time too the fire was returned and the situation turned normal after some time.
"During the night at about 2:00 AM there was heavy firing in the village and this once again terrified the Kashmiri Pandits. The firing lasted for more than one hour on this occasion and once it stopped people heaved a sigh of relief. There are hardly eight houses of Kashmiri Pandits in the villages and inhabitants of these houses got panicky due to the firing incident," said the sources.
This is the second incident in the recent past when Kashmiri Pandits have come under attack from either the stone pelters or gunmen. Some days back a group of people pelted stones on Kashmiri Pandits putting up in the Haal village of South Kashmir's Pulwama district. The stone pelting incident led to fear and panic among the Kashmiri Pandits living in this village.
The stone pelting incident invoked condemnation from various quarters both within the state and outside the state. Some of the Ministers of the state Cabinet visited the village and enquired about the safety of Kashmiri Pandits. However, as on date no substantial action has been taken to nab the persons who pelted stones on residential quarters of Kashmiri Pandits in Haal village. |
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