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Two lecturers have been shot lifeless by militants in a college within the Indian area of Kashmir, the newest within the spate of civilian killings which have focused minorities and heightened tensions within the troubled state.
Three assailants entered a authorities college in Eidgah, within the area’s capital, Srinagar, on Thursday morning and shot lifeless the principal, Supinder Kour, and her colleague, Deepak Chand.
Authorities blamed the focused killings on militants who’re preventing the Indian rule within the area, as a part of a decades-long insurgency with an allegiance to India’s neighbour and rival Pakistan.
Witnesses who spoke to the Guardian verified that the 2 lecturers had been killed by the assailants after Kour was singled out as a Sikh and Chand as a Hindu – minority teams within the Muslim-majority area.
Based on fellow lecturers on the college, Kour had been inside her workplace when militants stormed the premises armed with weapons and demanded that every one employees members gathered within the room.
“They demanded our identities,” mentioned a instructor, who requested anonymity. “All of the employees members who had been Muslim had been requested to go away whereas principal madam and one other instructor, Deepak Chand, had been requested to remain within the room.”
Whereas they had been leaving the workplace, the instructor mentioned he might hear the pair pleading with them to not hurt them. Witnesses mentioned Kour and Chand had been introduced out of the constructing and shot lifeless close to the porch of the single-storey college constructing. There have been no college students current on the college due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Suljeet, the 13-year-old daughter of Kour, described how earlier that day she had been excited after her exams went effectively and he or she had spoken to her mom over the cellphone. It was simply minutes after that decision that Kour was shot lifeless. “Why would somebody kill her? She was a instructor,” Suljeet mentioned.
The 2 lecturers are the newest casualties within the spate of civilian killings within the area in the previous couple of days, all blamed on militant teams. No less than seven civilians have been shot lifeless in numerous assaults prior to now 5 days, six of them in Srinagar. 4 of these killed, together with Kour and Chand, belonged to minority teams.
The back-to-back killings have shaken the area and heightened tensions between communities in Kashmir. Dilbagh Singh, the police chief of the area, referred to as the killings an “try and defame native Muslims of Kashmir”.
“Killing harmless civilians, together with lecturers, is a transfer to assault and harm the age-old custom of communal concord and brotherhood in Kashmir,” Singh mentioned.
The killings have additionally undermined guarantees by the Indian authorities, led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata get together (BJP), that their actions in Kashmir would result in higher safety within the area, which has been lengthy disputed between India and Pakistan and has been dwelling to a violent insurgency for greater than three many years.
In 2019, in a transfer that angered and pissed off the residents of Kashmir, the area was unilaterally stripped of its semi-autonomous standing and introduced totally below the management of the Indian authorities. Many Kashmiris feared it could result in demographic change in one in all India’s solely Muslim-majority states.
Since then, militant rebels within the area have intensified their assaults on non-locals dwelling and dealing in Kashmir, in addition to leaders of the BJP. About 80 civilians have been killed in such assaults because the area’s autonomy was scrapped, together with at the very least 28 this 12 months alone.
There have been fears that the assaults would result in an excellent higher crackdown on Kashmir by the Indian authorities. Authorities tightened safety at checkpoints throughout the capital and locals mentioned they had been being subjected to harassment. On Thursday night time, a civilian was shot by authorities forces after his automobile reportedly didn’t cease at a checkpoint.
A insurgent group often known as the Resistance Entrance (TRF) – related to one of many most important Islamic militant teams working in Kashmir, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) – claimed duty for 2 of the civilian killings final week, which included a Hindu chemist and a taxi driver. Nonetheless, no teams have taken duty of the assassination of the 2 lecturers on Thursday.
Mehbooba Mufti, a former chief minister of the area, blamed the Modi authorities for the scenario. She mentioned that the federal government’s declare of constructing a brand new Kashmir “has really turned it right into a hellhole”.
Hindus and Sikhs dwelling in Kashmir now worry they’re being focused. Kour’s neighbour Ravinder Singh, additionally a Sikh, mentioned: “It has develop into troublesome for us to remain right here now. Why was she killed? What was her fault? We’d like ensures from the bulk neighborhood right here.”
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