Srinagar, 3rd June 2021: Rakesh Pandita, chairman of Tral Municipal Committee of Pulwama district of South Kashmir and secretary of Pulwama district BJP unit, has been killed by terrorists. A woman Asifa Mushtaq has also been injured in the terrorist attack. Other details are awaited.

According to the information, Pandita, the secretary of BJP Pulwama district, was walking out of his house in Tral in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Wednesday night when suddenly some terrorists attacked him and started firing at him and fled.

On hearing the sound of firing, the nearby people reached the spot and picked up Rakesh Pandita lying on the ground in an injured condition and took him to the hospital where the doctors declared him dead. Soon after this incident, police and security forces launched a search operation to nab the terrorists. Asifa Mushtaq, daughter of Rakesh Pandita’s neighbor Mushtaq Ahmed, has also been injured in the firing of terrorists. She has been admitted to the Sub District Hospital in Tral.

Kashmir Zone Police also informed on internet media that Tral’s Municipal Councilor Rakesh Pandita had been given two personal security officers (PSO) for security and adequate arrangements were made to stay in a hotel at a safe place in Srinagar city. Despite this, Pandita went to Tral without taking the PSO. The place of the incident has been cordoned off. An intensive search operation is going on in the area to nab the terrorists.

Meanwhile, Kashmir’s IGP K Vijay Kumar said that three unidentified terrorists killed Pandita.

During the last one year, close to a dozen BJP workers have been killed in various terror attacks in the Valley. On 8 July 2020, terrorists killed BJP leader Wasim Bari in Bandipore with his father Bashir Ahmed and brother Umar Sultan in his house. Wasim’s father and brother were also BJP workers. About a month later, on 9 August 2020, BJP leader Abdul Hameed Najar was killed in the terrorist attack in Ompora Budgam.

Sajjad Ahmed Khande, a sarpanch belonging to the BJP, was killed in a terrorist attack in Vesu Qazigund on August 6, three days before the killing of Abdul Hameed Najar in Budgam. After this, on 23 September 2020, BJP-backed Block Development Council chairman S Bhupendra Singh was killed by terrorists outside his house in Budgam. On 29 October 2020, 3 BJP workers Fida Hussain Yattu, Umar Rashid Baig and Umar Ramzan Hajjam were kidnapped and killed by terrorists in Kulgam. On March 29, two councilors belonging to the BJP were killed in a terrorist attack in Sopore.