Shadow Correspondent
SRINAGAR, APR 05:
Suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants abducted a man and his son from Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipora district, with the former escaping with bullet injuries, an official said.
This is the second case of kidnapping in the district’s Hajin area in the past 48 hours.
The incident took place around 11:45 pm yesterday, a police spokesman said.
“Terrorists believed to be affiliated with banned terror organisation LeT, barged into the house of Abdul Gaffar Bhat at Hajin in Bandipora and started to beat up people,” he said.
He said the suspected militants abducted Abdul and his son Manzoor Ahmad Bhat.
“However, Abdul escaped in spite being fired upon and suffering injuries,” the spokesman said.
He has been hospitalised.
The police have launched a search for his son, he said.
Meanwhile, the police held a local terrorist responsible for the abduction and killing incidents in Hajin town of North kashmir’s Bandipora district.
A police official said that initial investigation so far has revealed that one Muhammd Saleem Parrey of Hajin, who joined the militancy last summer and is associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba, is the mastermind behind the last two abductions in Hajin.
On Monday night, militants had abducted and later killed Nasser Ahmad alias Muntazir.
Meanwhile, Life returned to normal in most parts of Kashmir today, with school and colleges resuming classes, after three days of shutdown and restrictions imposed by authorities in the wake of protests over the killings in Sunday’s encounters. Business establishments, shops, schools and colleges opened in most parts of the Valley after remaining closed for three days due to a strike called by the separatists and the restrictions, officials said.
The strike was called by the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), they said.
However, the officials said some parts of Shopian district observed a shutdown and restrictions continued in Kulgam district as a precautionary measure.
The curbs were imposed to prevent protests against the killing of 13 militants in three encounters on Sunday and the death of four civilians in the aftermath of the encounters, the official said.
Three soldiers were also killed in in the operations in Shopian and Anantnag districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Separatists had called for a shutdown on Monday and Tuesday to protest against the killings while authorities ordered closure of educational institutions for three days as a precautionary measure.
