According to the police, 30-year-old Arvind Kumar Sah, a vendor hailing from Bihar’s Banka area, died on spot after he was shot at from outside a park in Srinagar Edgah in the evening.

In a separate incident, militants shot at and critically injured Saghir Ahmad, a carpenter from UP, in Pulwama district, a police officer said. Ahmad was taken to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Earlier in the day, police claimed to have gunned down within 24 hours three militants who were involved in the killings of members of minority communities last week.

BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur said the murders of the two non-locals is highly shocking and urged the police to arrest the killers.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah took to Twitter to condemn the killings. “Strongly condemn the killing of street vendor Arvind Kumar in a terror attack in Srinagar today. This is yet another case of a civilian being targeted like this. All Arvind Kumar did was come to Srinagar in search of earning opportunities & it’s reprehensible that he was murdered,” Omar wrote on the micro-blogging site.

Strongly condemn the killing of street vendor Arvind Kumar in a terror attack in Srinagar today. This is yet another case of a civilian being targeted like this. All Arvind Kumar did was come to Srinagar in search of earning opportunities & it’s reprehensible that he was murdered

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) October 16, 2021

Terming the attacks “cowardly”, People’s Conference chairperson Sajad Gani Lone tweeted, “This is pure terror. Yet again a non-local vendor shot and killed in Idgah. What a shame. How cowardly can it get.”

Poonch encounter: Two more Armymen die, toll rises to 9

Two more Armymen have died in an ongoing gunfight with militants, taking the death toll among security forces to nine over the past six days in the border district of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir .

Sources said that while bodies of a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and an Army jawan were recovered from Nar Khas forests in Mendhar area on Saturday evening, that of two other soldiers were recovered day before.

The JCO, along with three jawans, had gone missing during the fight with militants in the dense forests near Bhata Durian village along the Bimber Gali – Surankote road on Thursday evening. The spot was adjacent to the area of Monday’s encounter on the side of Dehra Ki Gali along the Mughal Road.

Since then, the vehicular traffic on the road had been suspended.

Army PRO Lt Colonel Devender Anand identified the deceased soldiers as Subedar Ajay Singh and Naik Harendra Singh and said they were part of the search operations launched by the security forces to flush out militants hiding in the forested area. On Thursday, after a fierce firefight with militants, the communication with Subedar Ajay Singh and Naik Harendra Singh was disrupted, he added.

“Relentless operations continued to neutralise the militants and to re-establish communication with the soldiers,” he said, adding “Subedar Ajay Singh and Naik Harendra Singh were killed in action in the fierce fight and their bodies have been recovered on Saturday evening.”  The operations in the area are continuing, he added.

A JCO and four jawans were killed in a gun battle with the same group of militants in Chamred forests on DKG side along the Mughal road on Monday morning.

Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s grandson sacked from govt service for aiding terrorist activities in J&K

The grandson of pro-Pakistan separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was terminated from government service on Saturday for allegedly aiding terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

Anees-ul-Islam, who is the son of Altaf Ahmed Shah alias Altaf Fantoosh, was sacked using special provisions under Article 311 of the Constitution, they said.

In 2016, he was appointed as a research officer in the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre.

— With inputs from PTI and ENS