Two militant strikes occurred in South Kashmir on the day that the Baramulla constituency’s Lok Sabha election campaign came to a conclusion. The first targeted a Jaipur couple who are now in the hospital, while the second targeted a former BJP sarpanch who passed away from his wounds.
The attacks come days after Srinagar saw the highest polling in almost three decades, at 38%. Traditionally, both Baramulla, which votes on May 20, and Anantnag (now renamed Anantnag-Rajouri), which votes on May 25, have seen even higher voting than the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.
In the initial incident in Anantnag, the Jaipur couple was the target, according to the Jammu and Kashmir Police. Terrorists opened fire in Yannar, Anantnag, injuring a Jaipur resident named Lady Farha and her spouse Tabrez. The police released a statement saying, “Injured evacuated to hospital for treatment.”
In Shopian district, a former sarpanch, Aijaz Ahmad, was shot while he was inside his home in Heerpora area. Hospital sources confirmed to The Indian Express that Ahmad had been brought dead with “six firearm injuries”.
Former J&K chief minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti condemned the attack, while also criticising the central government. “While we condemn the attack in Pahalgam today that resulted in injuries to two tourists followed by another attack on a sarpanch in Hurpora, Shopian, the timing of these attacks given that the South election was delayed without any reason is a cause of concern. Especially keeping in mind normalcy claims touted by the Government of India,” she said in a post on X.
While we condemn the attack in Pahalgam today that resulted in injuries to two tourists followed by another attack on a sarpanch in Hurpora, Shopian – the timing of these attacks given that the South election was delayed without any reason is a cause of concern. Especially… https://t.co/rEa7SMpBGZ
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) May 18, 2024
The Election Commission moved the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary seat in Jammu and Kashmir’s polling day to May 25 earlier this month. The original plan was for it to take place on May 7.
“Such acts of brutality remain a serious impediment to achieving long-term peace in J&K,” National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and vice president Omar Abdullah said in their condemnation of the incident.
The head of the BJP’s media office in Kashmir, Sajid Yousuf Shah, declared, “We vehemently denounce the terrorists’ murder of former Sarpanch Aijaz Ahmad Sheikh in Heerpora today. Ahmad served with distinction as a Bharatiya Janata Party soldier in Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP is adamantly in support of his family.
This year, there have been four targeted attacks. In the town of Bijbehara in Anantnag, a militant attack claimed the life of a migrant worker on April 17. In the same month, a suspected insurgent opened fire in the Heerpora neighborhood of Shopian, injuring Dehradun resident Dilranjeet Singh.
Two men from Amritsar were shot at in the Shalakadal neighborhood of Srinagar during another incident in February. One of them passed away from his wounds.