Srinagar: Two teachers including a woman teacher have been shot dead inside the Government Boys Higher Secondary Schools Idgah Srinagar on Thursday, said Jammu and Kashmir Police.
The victims were identified as Satinder Kaur and Deepak Chand. Kaur, a Sikh woman, who was the principal of the school, is a resident of Aloochibagh in Srinagar. Deepak Chand, a Hindu, is a resident of Jammu, who was appointed in the SC category as a teacher and posted in Srinagar for four years. Both teachers were working at Government Boys School, Sangam, which is 10 kilometres from Srinagar's Lalchowk.
According to the police, four unidentified armed men barged into the school premises and shot at the two teachers. Both the critically injured were rushed to the hospital where doctors declared them brought dead.
Meanwhile, recounting the horrors, one of the teachers said, "we were horrified after hearing the gunshots in the school premises. When we came out we saw the two lying on the ground."
"With the help of the locals, we lifted them, while the principal ma'am was still breathing, the male teacher was almost dead," he further added.
A little-known militant outfit, The Resistance Front (TRF) has claimed responsibility for all these killings. Police have said that TRF is an offshoot of the militant outfit, LeT.
Minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi termed the killing of the two teachers as unfortunate and said that the killings is the cowardice act to stop the development of Jammu and Kashmir.
Meanwhile, Jammu-Kashmir Apni Party President Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari expressed deep shock and grief over the brutal killings of two teachers at Safa Kadal.
In a statement issued here, Bukhari termed the incident as a dastardly coward act wherein civilians have been targeted mercilessly.
“This is a brazen display of cowardice and inhuman nature. The government must act tough against the perpetrators of this heinous crime against humanity,” Bukhari said, demanding security measures that can prevent such brutal killings across Kashmir.
READ: Triple killings rock Kashmir, non-local among those dead
Reacting to the killings, JK police chief Dilbagh Singh said that the recent targeted killing of civilians, particularly members of the Kashmir Valley's minority communities, by militants is aimed at creating an atmosphere of fear and damaging the age-old communal harmony. "It is a conspiracy to target those who have come here for earning bread and butter.
It is a conspiracy to damage the age-old tradition of communal harmony and brotherhood in Kashmir. We regret the back-to-back attacks in which civilians have been killed. We are working on the previous cases and the Srinagar police have got many clues and we will soon get the people behind such terror and barbaric attacks... I am sure the police will be able to unmask them soon, he said.
A pall of gloom fell at the residence of Kour in Aloochibagh as his family and relatives mourn her killing.
"We feel very scared after these killings. The majority community should play its role for our safety," Harjit Singh, a local Sikh told ETV Bharat.
Srinagar's Mayor Junaid Matoo who visited the bereaved family said that the killings are the result of "security lapse".
The killings follow a day after a famous chemist Makhan Lal Bindroo, a Kashmiri Pandit, and a non-local vendor were killed in Srinagar.
Bindroo was shot at his shop at Hari Singh High Street Srinagar. He was rushed to the hospital in a critical condition but later succumbed to injuries. In the second incident of the evening, a non-local vendor was killed near Madina Chowk in the Lal Bazar area
In the third attack within a span of few hours, unknown gunmen shot dead a civilian in the Hajin area of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
