Militants shot dead a sarpanch in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, 8 June, reports said.
According to news agency IANS, the militants fired from close range and grievously injured 40-year-old Ajay Pandita, the sarpanch of Lukbawan, Larkipora.
"Today, at about 6 pm, some unknown terrorists fired upon one... sarpanch identified as Ajay Pandit at Lukbawan, Anantnag, who later on succumbed to his injuries at a hospital," the Jammu and Kashmir Police was quoted by ANI as saying.
The area has been cordoned off to nab the assailants, IANS further reported, with the police having registered a case and started an investigation.
“I’m pained that terrorists shot my son at his back. He has two daughters, who even after this incident have said that they will not leave their native place,” said Ajay’s father, Dwarika Nath Pandit.
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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also tweeted his condolences to the sarpanch’s family and friends.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah took to Twitter to condemn the "terror attack on a grassroots political worker".
The attack comes on a day when four terrorists were killed in the Pinjura village in south Kashmir's Shopian district. With the incident on Monday morning, the total number of terrorists killed in two encounters in the past two days rose to nine.
(With inputs from IANS and ANI.)
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