Srinagar, Aug 22: A worker of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who was abducted by militants last evening, was found dead in Litter village of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Wednesday.
Police said Shabir Ahmad Bhat, who hails from Pathan village of Pulwama, was abducted by the militants when he was on way to home on Tuesday evening. His bullet-riddled body was recovered from Litter village on Wednesday morning.
The police have registered a case and started investigations into the killing. Bhat is the first political activist killed by the militants after Governor led state government announced municipal and panchayat elections in J&K last week.
Earlier on November 2, a 30-year-old BJP youth wing leader was killed by the militants in neighbouring Shopian district. Throat slit body Gowhar Ahmad Bhat, BJP Youth President, was recovered from an apple orchard with visible torture marks.
In April this year, 61-year-old BJP politician, Ghulam Nabi Patel was killed by militants in Pulwama in broad daylight. The killing of political activists, especially in militancy hotbed of south Kashmir, is a grim reminder that Pakistan militant groups will continue to attack democratic process and politics in Kashmir.
For the last two years, Panchayat elections, due since July 2016 when the term of the previous elected village representatives ended, have been postponed indefinitely after militant groups issued threats of violence.
Panchayat elections for 4,130 sarpanch and 29,719 panch constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir were held in 2011 after more than three decades, and 80 percent of the people voted, despite unrest a year earlier. But a year later, the situation in Kashmir changed swiftly, and many panchayat members were targeted by the militants.
Since 2011, 16 panchayat members have been killed and 30 wounded in militant attacks in the Valley, according to the documents with Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference.
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