A panchayat member and former Peoples Democratic Party worker was critically injured after he was shot at by some masked gunmen in southern Kulgam district on Wednesday, a source said.
Some masked gunmen barged inside the house of Abdul MajeedDar son of Muhammad Ramzan at Shalipora-Katrasoo village at around 7.30pm andfired at him, leaving him seriously injured, the source said.
Majeed, who suffered a bullet injury, was immediately rushedto district hospital Kulgam, where from he was referred to Srinagar’s generalspecialty SMHS hospital in a critical condition, he said.
“He had a bulletinjury in his abdomen,” said a doctor at DH Kulgam.
Majeed is a panch (village deputy head) who was electedunopposed in the recently-concluded panchayat election as an independentcandidate. He was affiliated with the Peoples Democratic Party, which, alongwith NC, had boycotted the polls.
PDP leader from Kulgam Nazeer Ahmad Laway said: “He (Dar)was associated with PDP earlier but then he contested panchayat electionsindependently because we boycotted the polls”.
Soon after the incident, a joint team of the army and policelaunched a cordon-and-search operation in the area to nab the assailants.
Kulgam superintendent of police Grinder Pal Singh confirmedthat a panch was shot at by gunmen inside his own house.
“It was dark and two gunmen have shot at him. We areascertaining whether it was a militant attack,” he said.