Territorial Army soldier killed by militants posing as reporters in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam

Militants, who were posing as reporters, shot dead a Territorial Army soldier, Mukhtar Ahmad Malik on Monday. Malik had gone home to grieve the death of his son in a road accident a few days ago, in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

The militants barged into the house of Malik at Churat in Kulgam and shot at him from a close range, a police official said. The official said Malik died on the spot.

Malik’s relatives told The Indian Express that the suspected militants posed as reporters, and said they wanted to meet Malik. “They (militants) went inside the room where mourners were sitting,” said the relative. “Once they spotted him, they fired at him and rushed out.”

An official said Malik was on leave to perform the last rites of his son, who died in a road accident a few days ago. “The Corps Commander and all ranks condole the death of Malik, who was killed in a dastardly act by the terrorists today at his native village,” the official said. He said the Army “stands in solidarity with the martyr’s family and assures full support at this hour of grief and in future”.

According to The Indian Express report, villagers alleged that Malik was notorious in Kulgam in the late nineties. They also claimed that he was responsible for many civilian killings and that was involved in the killing of former legislator Abdul Razaq Mir.