Apni Party worker shot dead in Kulgam

SRINAGAR: Terrorists shot dead Apni Party worker Ghulam Hassan Lone in his house in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Thursday. A police spokesman said that terrorists fired at the 70-yearold leader near his house in Devsar.

SRINAGAR: Terrorists shot dead Apni Party worker Ghulam Hassan Lone in his house in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Thursday, marking the third killing of a political leader in the Valley this month.

Police spokesman said that preliminary investigation revealed that terrorists fired upon the 70-year-old leader near his house in Devsar. “He (Lone) was immediately shifted to nearby hospital where he was declared as brought dead... neither the police records nor the activities of deceased indicated him to be a political worker. Besides, as of date no political party had indicated or intimated about his political affiliation. However, post incident Apni Party claimed that the deceased was their political worker,” the spokesman said.

Apni party president Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari termed the incident barbaric and conveyed deep anguish over the killings of political activists. Bukhari said Lone was working on the ground for the welfare of people. This is the third killing of a political leader in the region in a fortnight, but the earlier deaths were of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders. On Monday, BJP leader Javeed Ahmad Dar was shot dead by terrorists in Kulgam. On August 10, BJP village chief Ghulam Rasool Dar and his wife Jawahira Bano were gunned down in Anantnag town.

Politicians condemned the killing. Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti said there was no end to political killings.

“Unfortunately there seems to be no end to the spree of political killings in Kashmir. Unreservedly condemn the killing of Apni party leader Ghulam Hassan Lone. My deepest condolences to the bereaved family,” she tweeted.

House panel meets top civil admn officials

On the second day of its fourday visit to Jammu and Kashmir, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs on Thursday held a meeting with top civil administration to discuss developmental scenario and people’s welfare measures in the Union Territory.

The panel, comprising of 28 MPs, is headed by senior Congress leader Anand Sharma.

The officials said that the members were told about the steps taken in the past few years for democratic decentralisation, the meeting was informed about the conduct of elections for District Development Councils and Block Development Councils thus strengthening the grassroot level democracy in the UT.

The meeting was told that the region has now three-tier democratic set up in place and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Urban Local Bodies have been further empowered.