A 52-year-old man was killed while three others were injured, one of them critically, after militants lobbed a grenade inside a newly-opened wine shop at the Dewan Bagh area in the Baramulla district, around 60 km north of Srinagar, on Tuesday evening. The attack in a high-security zone gives an indication of a worsening situation in the valley.
According to police, at around 8:10 pm, two militants riding a bike stopped near the shop. “The pillion rider wearing a burka walked to the window of the wine shop and dropped a grenade inside the shop through the porthole window and thereafter fled away on the bike from the spot,” the police spokesman said.
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“In this terror incident, four employees of the shop received splinter injuries. All the injured were immediately shifted to a nearby hospital. However, one among the injured identified as Ranjit Singh of Bakra Rajouri (Jammu) succumbed to injuries,” the police said.
The other wounded employees have been identified as; Govardhan Singh, Ravi Kumar, both residents of Billawar Kathua in Jammu and Govind Singh of Kangra Rajouri in Jammu. Among the injured, Govind Singh has been referred to Srinagar hospital for specialised treatment. Following the incident, senior police officers immediately reached the spot and cordoned off the area and started a search operation.
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The attack has come less than a week after the killing of Kashmiri Pandit employee Rahul Bhat and Kashmiri policeman Riyaz Ahmed Thoker.
Earlier incidents of militant attacks
On Thursday, 35-year-old Rahul Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit employee in the revenue department, was killed inside the office building in Budgam district when he was fatally shot by the militants who were two in number. The attack inside the office sparked fear among the employees of the minority community working across Kashmir. They are raising questions about their safety and are asking the government to move them out of Kashmir.
A day later, militants targeted and killed a policeman in the Valley’s Pulwama district on Friday. Special Police Officer Riyaz Ahmed Thoker died in the hospital after he was fired upon in his village Gudoora in south Kashmir. The police said Riyaz was on leave and waiting for his child’s school bus when two unidentified bike-borne men opened fire on him.
