Killing spree triggers fear, memory of dark past in Kashmir
ABC News
A spate of recent killings has rattled Indian-controlled Kashmir, with violence targeting local minority members and Indian civilians from outside the disputed region
SRINAGAR, India -- The Kashmiri Hindu activist was listening to religious hymns on his cellphone when he was interrupted by a tragic WhatsApp message. It brought news of a fatal shooting of a prominent chemist from his community, just a few miles from the activist’s home in Srinagar, the largest city in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Sanjay Tickoo, 54, anxiously bolted the gate of his house and gathered his family in the dining room. His phone kept buzzing with calls from frightened minority community members.
Within two hours of the killing of Makhan Lal Bindroo on Oct. 5, assailants shot and killed another Hindu man, a street vendor from India’s eastern state of Bihar, and in a separate shooting a native Muslim taxi driver. Two days later, two teachers - one Hindu and one Sikh - were shot inside a school on the outskirts of Srinagar.
The killings led to widespread unease, particularly among the region’s religious minority Hindus, locally known as Pandits, an estimated 200,000 of whom fled Kashmir after an anti-India rebellion erupted in 1989.
