Militants kill armyman when he was home to mourn son’s death
SRINAGAR : A 45-year-old armyman, who was home to mourn the death of his teenager son, was killed by suspected militants in Kulgam district on Monday.
Police said a group of militants barged into the house of Mukhtar Ahmad Malik, a territorial army (TA) man, and shot him. “Malik was at home... He was shot in head. He died on the way to hospital,” said a police officer.
An army official said Malik’s 18-year-old son died on September 15 after battling for life at hospital for many days following a car accident..
A villager said the assailants came in a car posing as journalists to meet Malik. “They pretended to shoot his video at his house using a mobile phone and shot him,” he said.
The locals said Malik used to be a member of the pro-government militia group called Ikhwan, which was working as a counter insurgency force in 1990s. “Malik, like many Ikhwan men, was eventually absorbed into the TA ,” the villager said.
Ikhwan has been notorious in Kashmir for its alleged human rights violations.
The killing triggered anger against journalists and prompted locals to disrupt the local reporters from covering the funeral of Malik.
This is the second killing of a local army man in J&K in the past three months. In June, an army soldier Aurangzeb was abducted from a private vehicle when he was going home for the Eid celebrations in Shopian. His body was recovered from Pulwama village.
STRIKE IN VALLEY
Meanwhile, life was affected in many parts of Kashmir as separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik asked people to observe a shutdown against the civilian and five militant killings in Kulgam on Saturday.
Shops and businesses were closed in the capital while movement of public transport has been partially affected. Schools have been closed while attendance in government offices is thin.
The state is going for municipal and panchayat polls from October 8 amid threats from militants to people for participating in the polls.