A top Kashmiri businessman and president of traders’ federation of Sopore, the Valley’s main apple trading centre, Gulam Nabi Khan was shot dead by an unidentified assailant at the town’s main square on Sunday. The authorities blamed the incident, the latest in a series of many such killings, on separatist militants but, so far, none of the armed groups active in the state, has owned it.
Khan, 45, was associated with ruling National Conference (NC) but his brother told reporters that he was not active in politics anymore but would concentrate on his business.
The police quoting witnesses said that an unidentified pistol-borne youth suddenly appeared in front of him and sprayed bullets on him from a close range at the Sopore chowk, 48 km northwest of here, resulting into his instant dead. Soon after the incident all shops and business establishments were closed and thousands of people attended funeral prayers of the victim. Both factions of separatist Hurriyat Conference alliance have condemned the incident. The Sopore traders’ body has called for a one-day strike over the killing on Monday. Shocked CM termed the killing as “barbaric” and said that the forces “which are not happy with the peace and tranquillity of the state have ugly agenda to target the popular personalities like Khan.”
He added that the mourning the killing by the people of the area and condemnation it has evoked across Jammu and Kashmir “is a clear indication of the fact that people are not now ready to remain silent spectators of such acts of violence… they have started expressing their opinion against such brutal killings without any fear.” NC president and Union minister Dr Farooq Abdullah the “killing of Khan is a murder of humanity.”