In Srinagar, jeweler killed weeks after house assent, militants warn of more attacks


For almost four decades, Satpal Nischal had run a jewelry store in the heart of Srinagar. On Thursday night, the 70-year-old man became the first person to be killed in Kashmir apparently for having obtained a certificate under the new domicile law, which gives people who have lived in Jammu and Kashmir for more than 15 years the right to buy real estate.

Just a few weeks after obtaining the certificate, Nischal was shot by suspected militants in his shop in Saraibala, and was dead when he was taken to the nearby Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital. The Resistance Front (TRF), a recently unveiled militant group, took responsibility for the attack, saying that all those “outsiders” who had received residence certificates were “RSS agents” and warning them: “We know your names, we know where you live.” . and we know what you’re doing and we’re going to get you. “

IGP, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar told The Indian Express: “We are working on both aspects, namely the trade rivalry and the terrorist claim … We will share the details soon.”

Grieving family members in Srinagar.

Before the scrapping of the special status of J&K, only the subjects of the old state could be their domiciles and buy land and other real estate. Nischal originally came from Gurdaspur in Punjab. A source said that he had applied after the law change and obtained the residence certificate. “Since her daughter-in-law is originally from Jammu, she had also recently bought a house and shop in Srinagar in her name.”

This house is located in the highly fortified area of ​​Indira Nagar, close to the 15th Army Corps Headquarters, while the store in the name of his daughter-in-law is in the Hari Singh High Street jewelry market.

Shortly after the Nischal assassination, the TRF, which police believe to be a Lashkar-e-Toiba front, said it had carried out the attack on the home issue. In a statement on its social media channels, the TRF said: “The Resistance Front today conducted an intelligence-based operation in Srinagar in which an RSS agent, posing as a businessman, was neutralized. The individual was an active participant in the Hindutva fascist-led demographic change and settler colony project to alter the demographics of Kashmir … The Resistance Front had already warned that any Indian citizen, regardless of religion, caste or color, who comes to Kashmir with the intention of settling here, will be treated as an RSS agent and not as a civilian. “

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