15 terrorists had moved into Kishtwar, days before BJP leader was killed

Jammu, Nov 2: The killing of a BJP leader and his brother in Jammu and Kashmir is a new low. Anil Parihar, the BJP's J&K unit secretary and his brother were gunned down in Kishtwar town of Jammu division on Thursday, when they were returning home from work.

The police are yet to ascertain the reason behind the killing. The cops are probing whether it was an act of terror or a incident carried out by criminals owing to some rivalry.

In this backdrop, one must take note of an Intelligence Bureau report, which spoke about heavy movement of terrorists in Kishtwar in the past 15 days.

The report spoke about the movement of 15 terrorists in the area. They had moved in from Anantnag district of South Kashmir into Kishtwar.

There are several aspects to the ongoing probe. The police suspect that this could have been an act of terror ahead of the November 17 panchayat elections. Various reports have suggested that Pakistan and its terrorists would up the ante. Moreover several terror groups have been trying to target and disrupt the elections. The J&K administration had said that Pakistan is particularly upset that the election process is underway and was also successfully completed where the urban local body polls were concerned.

Following the killing the Army was told to be on standby. The police were expecting violent protests and as a precautionary measure, imposed curfew in the Muslim majority town. The police say that it would be too early to comment on the motive, but according to divisional commissioner of Jammy, Sanjeev Verma, it was a subversive attack.