At least 28 civilians have been killed by suspected militants this year in the region, which has been wracked by an armed insurgency against New Delhi since the 1990s.
Although most of those shot dead recently have been Muslims, the killing this week of a number of Hindus and a Sikh led police to say that religious minorities were now being targeted.
Two teachers — one Hindu, one Sikh — who were shot dead inside a government school in the main city of Srinagar on Thursday.
Based on information recovered from the body of an insurgent commander killed last month, Indian authorities believe The Resistance Front (TRF) militant group is targeting political workers and civilians, a senior police official said.
In a statement on social media this week, TRF said it was not targeting people on the basis of their religion but those working for Indian authorities.
Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the statement.
“The (cells) are small and at least three dozen militants with pistols are operating in Kashmir with a main focus on Srinagar,” the official said, declining to be named.
Indian police have described the TRF as a front for militant organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.
The TRF emerged in the wake of the Indian government’s move to split the former state of Jammu and Kashmir into two federally-administered regions in August 2019. Accompanied by a harsh lockdown and strict communications curbs, the decision was widely unpopular in the Kashmir valley and may have pushed more young people to take up arms, a security official said.
“They were desperate and now they have been provided small arms including pistols and grenades,” the official said, declining to be named.
Vijay Kumar, Kashmir Valley’s police chief, said militant groups had changed their strategy in response to a crackdown by security forces, but local authorities were already pursuing several leads into the recent spate of killings.
But members of the Hindu Kashmiri Pandit community, some of whom returned to the Kashmir valley after leaving during the early years of militancy, were unnerved by the violence.
“There is lot of fear among the community members and we are afraid of coming out of our homes,” a Kashmiri Pandit living in the northern district of Baramulla told Reuters.
The senior police official said the recent killings of members of minority communities were aimed at preventing the return of the Kashmiri Pandits.
Omar Abdullah, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, appealed to minority community members not to flee, urging the local administration to provide better security.
“I believe these attacks are aimed to drive a wedge between the communities and to push them out of Kashmir,” Abdullah said. “We can’t let that happen.”
Meanwhile, hundreds of Sikhs in Kashmir yesterday marched at the funeral of a teacher killed by suspected militants.
Supinder Kour, 46, was shot dead with colleague Deepak Chand in their school on Thursday, the third in a series of attacks claimed by the TRF rebel group this week.
The killings in the restive territory drew wide condemnation from residents in Kashmir and across India as well as politicians from all sides.
‘’Jammu and Kashmir has been on the road to progress but some elements do not want peace and they have started targeting the minority communities,” a BJP leader said.
Angry members of the Sikh community carried Kour’s body wrapped in a white shroud along a main street in Srinagar, shouting religious slogans and demanding justice.
They were joined by a handful of Muslim residents.
A Sikh leader disclosed that community leaders have directed all the government employees of their community to not go to work until the security situation changes.
Many residents say the condemnations for civilian killings are selective and often tied to the victims’ religion.
On Thursday a resident was shot dead by security forces when his car failed to stop at a checkpoint in southern Kashmir valley, police said.
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