Oct. 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Indian Police have reported the death of a member of the Hindu minority in the Shopian district of Indian controlled Kashmir who was attacked by armed “terrorists”.
The deceased has been identified as Puran Krishan Bhat, a member of the Kashmiri Pandit minority who did not convert to Islam during the Middle Ages.
He was shot on his way to a Choudhary Gund orchard. He was rushed to a hospital but has died due to the severity of his injuries, the ‘Hindustan Times’ newspaper reports.
The area has been cordoned off and those responsible are already being sought, according to the Kashmir Area Police in a communication posted on Twitter.
The Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS) party has warned that this murder is a message to the government that seeks to highlight that “all is not well” in Kashmir. The president of the KPSS has also denounced pressure from the authorities on the victim’s family so that the funeral and burial are accelerated to try to give an image of normality in the region.
Pakistan and India have disputed the region of historical Kashmir since 1947 and have fought over it in two of the three wars they have had since independence from the United Kingdom. In 1999 there was a brief but intense military confrontation between the two nuclear powers and since 2003 a fragile truce has been maintained.
In recent months, tension has increased due to the strong repression of the Indian security forces and the suspension of the autonomy of the Jammu and Kashmir region since August 2019.
