A man has been shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Kashmir, just days after a terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people and sent tensions between India and Pakistan soaring.
The victim, identified as 44-year-old Ghulam Rasool Magray, was attacked at his home in the Kani Khas area in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Saturday night.
Police said unidentified gunmen barged into his house and opened fire, hitting him in the abdomen and wrist.
Magray was rushed to the District Hospital in Handwara and later referred to Srinagar’s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
The killing comes as Kashmir remains under heightened security following Tuesday’s deadly assault on tourists in Pahalgam. Indian security forces have launched a wide-ranging crackdown across the valley in response, detaining over 2,000 people and raiding the homes of those accused of sympathising with a separatist insurgency.
Kashmir is administered in part by India and Pakistan and claimed in its entirety by both. Attacks by violent militants seeking independence for the region have dogged the Indian side of the de facto border since at least 1989, and India accuses Pakistan of backing the insurgency. The two countries have fought multiple wars over the region.
Police said an investigation into Magray’s killing had been launched, but no arrests made so far.
An intense security operation has been taking place in Kashmir in response to the Pahalgam attack, according to authorities in a region that was already one of the most highly militarised on Earth.
Security forces have been raiding the homes of “terrorists and their sympathisers,” Indian media reported quoting officials. Police have detained “hundreds” of people for questioning, according to the Press Trust of India.
Five houses that Indian authorities say belonged to “terrorists or their associates” have been demolished in the past 48 hours, with officials warning that similar action will be taken against others involved in terror activities, according to the agency.
Tensions are also particularly high between India and Pakistan, amid an expectation that New Delhi will order a limited military strike on its neighbour as part of its response to the Kashmir killings. Islamabad has denied any involvement in the attack, but India has severed diplomatic ties and threatened to end a decades-old water sharing agreement.
Border skirmishes have been reported between the two neighbours in recent days.
None of the Pahalgam gunmen have yet been apprehended but India claims at least two of them were Pakistani nationals. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has said his government will pursue the attackers – and their “backers” – to “the ends of the Earth”.
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