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J&K police investigate jeweller’s killing as parties condemn attack
Police said they have begun an investigation into the case and were looking at all possible angles. “We are investigating into the case and are looking at what TRF has said in a Facebook post,” sub-divisional police officer Shahjahan Ahmad said.
The Jammu and Kashmir police on Saturday said they were investigating the killing of a jeweller by terrorists in Srinagar earlier this week, as leaders across political lines condemned the attack.
On Thursday, 70-year-old Satpal Nischal, who had been running a jewellery shop in Srinagar for at least 40 years, was gunned down weeks after he obtained a certificate under the new domicile law, which allows people who have lived in J&K for more than 15 years the right to purchase property. The Resistance Front (TRF), a new terror group that is controlled by top handlers of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), took responsibility for the attack in a statement. The terror group said the jeweller was part of a “settler project” and those who obtain the domicile certificate will be treated as “occupiers”.
“For a long time we warned and now the time has come when we shall warn no more. We know your names, we know where you live and we know what you do. We are coming for you,” TRF said in a statement.
Police said they have begun an investigation into the case and were looking at all possible angles. “We are investigating into the case and are looking at what TRF has said in a Facebook post,” sub-divisional police officer Shahjahan Ahmad said.
Originally a resident of Punjab’s Gurdaspur, Nischal had purchased two properties after he acquired the domicile certificate, which was provided for after the Centre revoked the Constitution’s Article 370 that gave a special status to J&K in August 2019, people familiar with the matter said.
Condemning the attack, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Nischal’s killing was an assault on the idea of a unified India.
“In India, we embrace all religions but it is a matter of concern and shame that the leaders of self-proclaimed secular parties in Kashmir have once again failed to condemn Pakistan and its proxy TRF,” J&K BJP spokesperson Brigadier (retired) Anil Gupta said in a statement.
Taking to Twitter, National Conference (NC) leader and former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah said that no form of violence can be justified.
“Very unfortunate. There can be no justification for this kind of violence. May the soul of the departed rest in peace & may his family find strength at this difficult time,” he said.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti echoed Abdullah’s views. “Condemn the gruesome killing of an innocent man in Srinagar… Violence has no place in a civilised society. Deepest condolences to the bereaved family,” she said in a tweet.
