SRINAGAR: Senior separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has condemned the killing of a teenage boy by suspected militants in north Kashmir on Tuesday.
Suhail Ahmed Sofi, 18, was chased into a Mosque in Dodhbagh area of Sopore and shot dead by suspected militants.
Farooq, who heads the moderate faction of separatist alliance Hurriyat Conference, called his killing a “cold-blooded murder”. He said such acts were “savage and unacceptable in every civilised society”.
“Killing of an innocent civilian means murder of the whole humanity. Nobody has the right to murder a person on political, organisational, or individual basis,” he said in a statement.
The Mirwaiz has also demanded an impartial probe into the killing.
No militant group has so far said that its members killed the teenager. But the police say their preliminary investigations suggest that the Lashkar-e-Toiba militant group was involved.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister launched a scathing attack on the opposition political parties for what he said were “double standards when it came to killing of a Kashmiri youth by militants.”
“If this kind of killing had been committed by security forces they would have torn out their clothes, castigated the country and asked me to give the answer for bleeding of innocent blood”, he said in the legislative assembly.
“Shedding of innocent blood and killings of people are ‘killings’ either committed by security forces or by militants and should be condemned in unequivocal terms without any discrimination”, he said.
Also Read: Gunmen Chase Teen Into Kashmir Mosque, Shoot Him Dead
