Apple buyer from Punjab killed in J&K

Srinagar: In a gory act, gunmen on Wednesday shot dead from point blank range a migrant labourer from Chhattisgarh in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Pulwama district.

The police blamed the incident on separatist militants and said that the victim 29-year-old Sethi Kumar Sagar, a brick kiln worker and a resident of Bansula Champa area of Chhattisgarh, was walking with another civilian-believed to be his cousin-when two gunmen targeted him in Pulwama’s Nihama area near Kakpora railway station.

J&K’s director general of police, Dilbagh Singh, while conforming it said that a manhunt has been launched for the assailants.

In the evening, gunmen opened fire on two non-Kashmiri apple buyers in neighbouring Shopian district’s Tranz area.

One of them identified as Charanjit Singh was brought dead to Pulwama’s district hospital whereas the other Sanjiv Kumar is fighting for life, the police and hospital source said.

The sources said that the duo belonging to Ferozpur district of Punjab were targeted by suspected militants while apple boxes bought by them were being loaded in a truck in the village. The gunmen also torched the truck, the sources added.

On Monday night, suspected militants had shot dead a truck driver from Rajasthan identified as Sharief Khan in Sindhoo-Shirmal village of Shopian. The gunmen had also torched his truck loaded with apples which were to be transported out of the Valley.

Earlier during the day on Wednesday, three militants associated with outlawed Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiaba (LeT) outfits were killed in a fire fight with security forces in Anantnag district. One Army soldier was injured during the clash, the officials said.