Teachers lined up, 2 of them shot in Srinagar

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 7

A woman principal and a teacher were today gunned down by militants in the Eidgah area of Srinagar, taking to seven the number of civilians killed in the Valley in five days.

Jammu & Kashmir Police sources said the manner in which the killings were executed showed the ISIS and Taliban imprint.

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A police officer has confirmed that all teachers of Boys Higher Secondary School in Sangam were lined up and their ID cards and mobile phones checked. After ascertaining their religion, the militants allowed most of them (presumably Muslims) to leave and then Sikh woman principal Supinder Kour and Hindu male teacher Deepak Chand were killed around 11.15 am, he said. There were no students in the school due to the ongoing online teaching. Supinder Kour was a resident of the Alochi Bagh area in Srinagar, while Deepak Chand was from Jammu.

Today’s killings, which drew widespread condemnation, took the number of civilians killed in the last five days in the Valley to seven. Of the seven killed, four were from minority communities, while six of the deaths took place in Srinagar.

On Saturday, militants shot dead Majid Ahmad Gojri, a resident of Srinagar. Later that night, another civilian Mohammad Shafi Dar, resident of Batamaloo, was shot at. He succumbed to his injuries a few hours later.

On Tuesday, three civilians, including Makhan Lal Bindroo, owner of Srinagar’s famous pharmacy, were shot dead by militants.

Political parties and leaders have strongly condemned the killings. “Another set of targeted killings, this time of two teachers in a school in the city. Words of condemnation are not enough for this inhuman act...,” National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah said on Twitter.

Lamenting that the Centre’s claim of building a “Naya Kashmir” had actually turned it into a “hellhole”, ex-CM Mehbooba Mufti tweeted, “Disturbing to see the deteriorating situation in Kashmir where a minuscule minority is the latest target… Its sole interest is to use Kashmir as a milch cow for its electoral interests.”

Cross-border terror

Innocent people are being killed. It is targeted killing. We are worried about cross-border terrorism. Arindam Bagchi, MEA

Selective killings: Cops

• n All teachers of Boys Higher Secondary School lined up
• n ID cards, mobiles checked
• n Principal Supinder Kour, teacher Deepak Chand shot dead
• 7 civilians dead in 5 days
• n Seven civilians have been killed by terrorists in the Valley in the past five days, four from J&K minority communities

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