Agencies:

JAMMU: For the first time in the last over 15 years, terrorists on Monday shot dead a 38-year-old Sarpanch from the minority Kashmiri Pandit community in close vicinity of home in Larkipora area of Anantnag district in southern Kashmir.
Officials said that two unidentified terrorists on a motorcycle appeared at Lukbhawan, Larkipora, near about 10 kms from district headquarters of Anantnag, at 5:40 pm and shot dead 38-year-old local Sarpanch, Ajay Pandita Bharti, with pistol shots. The Sarpanch, who belonged to Congress party, died on the spot as he sustained gunshots in his head, shoulder and chest. Residents and his family members rushed him to district Hospital Anantnag where doctors declared him as ‘brought dead’.

Some people posted on Twitter and Facebook that Bharti had been attacked as he had been “distributing Domicile certificates among the non-State subjects”. Deputy Commissioner of Anantnag, KK Sidha, who like Bharti is a Kashmiri Pandit and resident of (Mattan) Anantnag, maintained that he had no such information.