Strife-torn Kashmir is on the edge after a trucker, who was set ablaze by a mob over the rumours of cow killing in Udhampur, succumbed to injuries in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital on Sunday.
Zahid Ahmad Bhat had received 70 per cent burns after a petrol bomb was hurled on the Kashmir-bound truck near Shiv Nagar on the Srinagar-Jammu highway on the intervening night of October 9 and 10. Bhat’s associate Showkat Ahmad Dar, who had received 40 per cent burns, is currently under treatment in the Safdarjung Hospital.
The attack had come just days after carcasses of the cows were found in Udhampur district. The district administration and the cow owner later ruled out any foul play and concluded that the bovines had died a natural death.
Zahid’s death is the third reported murder in the last three weeks over beef-related rumours, after Dadri and Saharanpur incidents.
Violent protests rocked several areas of south Kashmir after the death of Zahid reached his ancestral village Batingo in Anantnag district. Hundreds of youth took to streets and blocked the Srinagar-Jammu national highway.
Protestors also hurled stones on the security forces prompting them to lob smoke shells and resort to lathi-charge.“Another needless death in the name of beef ban for which the BJP and its affiliates including allies are directly responsible. The honourable PM passed the buck on to Akhilesh Yadav...for Dadri. Who will he blame for Zahid death now?” tweeted Omar Abdullah, former J&K chief minister.
“The so-called rulers are directly responsible for this murder. In their lust for power they have handed over J&K to fanatics,” said Mohommad Yasin Malik, chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).
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 "J&K: Udhampur trucker set ablaze over 'cow killing' dies; third victim in three weeks")
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