Inspector General of Police (IGP) Muneer Khan on Tuesday described the posters, which warned non-local labourers against staying in the Kashmir Valley, as a “ploy of miscreants.”
“There is no militant outfit called Mujahideen-e-Kashmir (MeK). No such group exists. People should not pay any heed to these posters,” said Mr. Khan.
The MeK pasted “a few posters” in parts of south Kashmir asking non-locals to leave the Valley by October 25 or “face dire consequences.”
Accusing non-local labourers of “working with the security agencies”, the group warned of action against those who questioned this campaign.
Meanwhile, the slain ex-sarpanch’s house, where a ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and a Hizbul Mujahideen militant were killed in a scuffle on Monday evening in Shopian, was set on fire by a mob on Tuesday afternoon, “to avenge the latter’s death.”
Tension was palpable since the morning in Shopian’s twin villages of Imamsahib and Trenz, where the funerals of Mohammad Ramazan Sheikh, the PDP leader, and Showkat Kumar alias Falahi, the Hizb militant, took place.
Women were inconsolable as the body of Sheikh was taken for funeral.
Pakistani flags were unfurled during the last rites of the slain Hizb militant. Hundreds of locals converged to offer prayers.
“I had gone to offer late-evening prayers on Monday. On my way back from the mosque, I heard gunshots. I rushed home and saw my brother in a pool of blood. There was no one around. I saw no militant. I took my brother to hospital but he died on the way,” recalled Sheikh’s younger brother.
Counter-attack
Police officials told The Hindu that in a rare counter-attack, the family took on the group of at least three militants around 8 p.m. when Sheikh was “dragged outside the house.”
“One Hizb militant Falahi was hit on the head in the brawl that ensued. One woman relative of the victim chased the attackers with a hard object. One militant died in the counter-attack,” said the police official.
Around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, a mob, comprising the locals who participated in the funeral of the Hizb militant, converged on the house of the ex-sarpanch and set it on fire.