Now stone pelters in Kashmir kill a tourist from Chennai

The stone pelters were at it again. A tourist from Chennai became the latest victim of stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir. A 22 year old tourist was killed at Narbal after stone pelters hurled stones at a vehicle.

R Thirumani was hit on his nose and forehead, following which he was shifted to the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences. He succumbed to injuries at the hospital. The doctors tried to revive him, but he died. Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti visited the family of the victim and offered all possible help.

This is the third such incident in which innocents have become a victim of stone pelting. Last week, stone pelters targeted a school bus. In April stone pelters attacked a tourist bus in Anantnag district. The bus was carrying both locals and tourists.

The incident triggered a series of reactions and the most prominent one was pertaining to the amnesty granted to stone pelters. Back in January, a decision was taken to grant at least 5.500 first time stone pelters amnesty.

The decision was taken in a bid to bring the youth back to the mainstream amidst the outrage created by a section which felt that being harsh on the young would lead nowhere.

Even more ironically, the Hurriyat leadership has been silent on this incident. In fact there was no condemnation from the Hurriyat leadership when stone pelters attacked a tourist bus on April 3- at Anantnag district. A group of youngsters pelted stones at a bus carrying both locals and tourists at around 8 pm.

Security officials say that these are not stray incidents and are linked to the operations being carried out by the Army against terrorists. A few days back, a top terrorist Sameer Tiger was shot dead by the Army and this had triggered an outrage among the locals. Several thousand people had attended the funeral amidst condemnation by various terror groups including the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.