Heavily armed soldiers started patrolling the streets of curfew-hit Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir this morning after a BJP leader and his brother were shot dead by terrorists last night. BJP state secretary Anil Parihar and his brother Ajit were returning from their shop at 8 pm when they fell to bullets fired from close range, the police said.
The killing of the two men was the third attack on political workers in the last one month in the state, after the murder of two National Conference workers and a PDP leader in Srinagar.
"We are trying to find out the identity of the killers," senior police officer Dilbagh Singh told NDTV.
District magistrate Angrez Singh Rana said he called in the army to ensure law and order was maintained in the town that falls under Jammu region that has seen clashes in the past. In 2001, 17 people were killed in Kishtwar by terrorists in an attack that the intelligence agencies had said was an attempt to ignite violence in the region.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh and other leaders condemned the killing.
After the killings last night, a group of people had surrounded some policemen in protest.
Senior police officer Rajinder Gupta said they have formed teams to search for the killers.
The police said the terrorists had been waiting for the brothers to cross the dark street before the attack. When locals came to know of the killings, they surrounded some senior police officers and argued with them; they also forced the district officials and the police to leave the hospital where the bodies of the two brothers were kept last night, PTI reported.
Anil Parihar's career in politics spanned 25 years; he fought the 2008 assembly elections on a Jammu and Kashmir National Panther Party or JKNPP ticket, but lost. His brother Ajeet worked with the State Forest Corporation.
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