SRINAGAR: Suspected militants have shot dead a 40-year-old businessman in north Kashmir’s Sopore area, police say.
A car workshop owner, Kifayat Hussain also ran a ‘Himayat’ Centre that facilitates skill enhancement of local youth under a scheme by the Union Rural Development Ministry.
Witnesses said that Hussain was at his office in Shankergund village at 10 am when gunmen barged in and opened fired.
He died on the spot, a police officer said.
Under the Himayat, Kashmiri youth are provided professional training at corporates and given jobs in different parts of the country.
New Delhi initiated the scheme after the 2010 mass uprising that saw the killing of at least 110 protesters in police and paramilitary firing.
In Kashmir, many people see such schemes with suspicion.
But the police officer who spoke to FreePress said it was too early to link the businessman’s killing with his association with the New Delhi-run scheme.
No militant group has said that its members killed Hussain.
The businessman is also reported to have fought elections unsuccessfully in the past.
Sources say he was known for his proximity to senior police officers of the area, but would also facilitate the release of youth detained by the police on stone pelting charges.
