SRINAGAR: Terrorists shot sarpanch
Manzoor Ahmad Bangroo
dead in an orchard at Goush-bugh village of
Pattan
in
Kashmir’s Baramulla district Friday evening.
The attack on Bangroo, who won the panchayat elections as an independent, adds to a long list of 21 panchayat members killed before him since rural polls were held in J&K for the first time in decades in 2011. His death underscored the continuing threat to elected village representatives after a spate of killings last month.
LG Manoj Sinha condemned the attack. “Perpetrators of this despicable act shall be punished…” he tweeted.
The targeted killings have become a headache for security agencies in Kashmir, where only 6,162 panches and 1,366 sarpanches were elected in the elections held after 32 years. Of 20,093 panch and sarpanch seats, 12,565 are vacant.
On March 11, sarpanch
Shabir Ahmad Mir
was gunned down in his home in Kulgam district. Before his murder, sarpanch
Sameer Ahmed Bhat
was killed with two bullets to his chest in Khonmoh on the outskirts of Srinagar on March 9, and panchayat member
Mohammad Yaqoob Dar
was shot dead in Kulgam district on March 2.
Reacting to sarpanch Manzoor Ahmad Bangroo’s killing on Friday,
National Conference
tweeted: “The vicious cycle of violence seems to be unending…” while party president
Omar Abdullah posted: “Another targeted killing, another family in mourning this evening…”
Police said the area has been sealed and a manhunt launched to catch the assailants of Bangroo. An officer said utmost precautions have been taken to prevent terrorist attacks on rural representatives, but some members and sarpanches were risking their lives by stepping out of the security cover provided to them and not keeping police in the loop when they do.
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