Sikh killed in Kashmir in suspected Islamic terror attack

A Punjabi Sikh migrant into Kashmir was gunned down in what is believed to be a terror attack in Kashmir on Wednesday (07.02.2024), becoming yet another victim of Islamic radicalism in the region.

The incident occurred in the Shaheed Gunj area of Srinagar, where carpenter Amritpal Singh had been working for approximately four years. Singh was shot at pointblank range with an AK47, along with his village friend, a Hindu Punjabi man named as Rohit Masih. Both are from Amritsar.

Speaking to the media, Sukhdev Singh, the older brother of Amritpal Singh, said; “Last night, we got the call that terrorists have attacked, then we later came to know that he died. He was my younger brother. He had been working there for 3-4 years. Government should take action against terrorists so that such attack does not happen on anyone else”.

Indian media have also reported that the Jammu and Kashmir Government has sent fifty thousand rupees cash and a one-thousand-rupee cheque to Amritpal Singh’s family, although that is unconfirmed and under what ruling they could compensate the family is unclear.

Although no group have yet taken responsibility for the killing, with a regional version of ISIS – ISIS-K – having done so around the area previously, community groups like the Kashmiri Sikh Project have reported the killing was a result of terrorism, based on knowledge of local issues.

Sikhs have historically been plagued by Islamic extremists in Jammu and Kashmir, such as the murder of teacher Supinder Kour in 2021.

It is also important to note however, that Sikhs have also been targeted in Kashmir by Indian
authorities due to a Hindu nationalist agenda, such as in the case of the massacre of Chittisinghpura in 2000. Even recent Sikh deaths in the area have arisen suspicion of Sikhs being collateral damage amid an ongoing battle between India, Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists.

In the complexity of the situation in Kashmir, where there is both Hindu and Muslim militancy, unarmed outside labourers, like Amritpal and Rohit, are known to be frequently targeted because their murders are able to relay messages to other areas.

In line with far-right Indian Islamophobic political sentiments, countless Indians on twitter have been mocking Amritpal Singh’s murder by sharing pictures of another Sikh man holding an umbrella for a Muslim man praying which previously went viral, claiming it was Amritpal Singh and mocking the idea of Sikh-Muslim unity in the area. The callous Hindu nationalist rhetoric local Sikhs have been quick to criticise the bigoted trolling.

Kashmir’s National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah condemned the killings and added that the continued incidents in the heart of Srinagar city are proof that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is not the same as what the Centre claims. “Earlier they said that guns will fall silent post abrogation of Article 370, but even areas like Srinagar, Rajouri and Poonch which had almost become militancy free are now continuously witnessing incidents of militant attacks,” he said.

The topic of Sikh safety in the regions of Kashmir and Jammu, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, will continue to be a point of concern for the wider community, with government action against such attacks seemingly unable to prevent them occurring regularly.

NOTE-
In a shocking update to the story which came out shortly after this article was published, the family of Amritpal Singh have claimed they have seen no bullet-wounds on his body and are demanding an independent postmortem to look into how he died.