Taliban-style killing in Kashmir mosque

Seemingly taking a cue from dreaded Pakistani Taliban, suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba militant barged into a mosque and shot dead an 18-year-old youth when a religious congregation was on at Doabgah village in Sopore on late Tuesday evening.

According to local residents, the victim was actively taking part in sports events organised by police and army and also encouraged other youth of his area to participate in these activities. The sports events had helped in keeping youth away from disruptive activities after 2010 summer agitation in the Valley.

Police said Suhail Ahmad Sofi was fired by some unidentified militants at 9.45 pm on Tuesday when he was sitting with another youth in a ground near a local mosque in Doabgah, the village neighboring Seer-Jagir where Afzal Guru used to live.

“He (Sofi), however, escaped the bullets fired by militants and ran towards the mosque where he hid himself in the hamam (a reserved place used to keep mosque warm in winters). One militant, however, chased him and entered the mosque and pumped five bullets into him. He died on the spot. Preliminary investigation reveals that the militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba have killed him,” said a police spokesman.

Police said there was a religious congregation going on in the mosque when the militants shot dead Sofi. “Police later recovered the body of the deceased from the mosque. After postmortem and other legal formalities, the body was handed over to the next of kin for last rites,” he said.

Police have registered a case and have put the investigation on the fast-track to apprehend the militants responsible for the incident.

The murder also rocked the assembly with chief minister Omar Abdullah fuming at the “selective outrage” . “I can accept the anger directed against us for excesses by security forces but only from people willing to condemn such killings (boy murder). Want to see the hypocrisy of selective outrage?” Omar tweeted.

@DNA