Militants pumped five bullets into a youth and shot him dead inside a mosque in Kashmir Valley after chasing him on suspicion of being an informer of security forces.
The attack on 18-year-old Suhail Ahmad Sofi inside the mosque in Sopore area of Baramulla district last night where a congregation had assembled for night prayers is suspected to have been carried out by militants belonging to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). Sofi died on the spot, police said.
The incident led Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to lash out at netizens who maintained silence over the killing but had showed "outrage" against killing of a youth in firing by security forces last week.
"Militants chase an 18-year-old boy in to a mosque and shoot him. Imagine the outrage if this had been done by security forces," Abdullah wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.
Militants chase an 18 year old boy in to a mosque & shoot him. Imagine the outrage if this had been done by security forces. #hypocrisy
— Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) March 20, 2013
The Chief Minister said the "hypocrisy" was evident from the reactions on his Twitter timeline to the killing of a youth by CRPF personnel last week and lack of any reaction to Sofi's killing.
"Want to see the hypocrisy of selective outrage? Compare reactions on my TL (timeline) today to those exactly a week ago," he added.
Want to see the hypocrisy of selective outrage? Compare reactions on my TL today to those exactly a week ago. #Kashmir
— Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) March 20, 2013
Sofi was sitting with another local youth in the compound of the mosque at Doabgah in Sopore last night when militants opened fire on him but he managed to escape from the spot and took refuge inside the Hamaam (heating fireplace) of the religious place, Superintendent of Police Sopore Imtiyaz Hussain said.
He said one militant entered the mosque, where a congregation had assembled and pumped five bullets into Sofi, who died on the spot.
Sofi, a school dropout, was killed on the suspicion of being an informer of the security forces, Hussain said.
The Grand Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad condemned the incident, saying Islam does not allow killing of innocent people, especially inside the mosque.
