Prison chief killed in IIOJK militants claim responsibility

Author: Reuters
Prison chief killed in IIOJK militants claim responsibility. Photo: AFP

The chief of the prison service in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) has been murdered, police said on Tuesday, as the Indian interior minister visited the disputed Himalayan region that has been riven by a decades-long insurgency.

The body of Hemant Kumar Lohia, 57, the region’s director general of prisons, was found at his home on Monday night in the Jammu region, police said.

Police said a household helper was the main suspect but a separatist group said it had targetted and killed Lohia.

Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between mostly Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan which both claim it in full.

Separatist Muslim groups have fought against Indian security forces in its part of Kashmir since the late 1980s.

Senior police officer Mukesh Singh said Lohia’s throat had been cut and his body bore burns. The initial investigation suggested it was not a “terror act” but police were investigating, he said.

The People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), a militant group that emerged after India’s government reorganised its only Muslim-majority state into two federally administered territories in 2019, said it had assassinated Lohia.

Police have blamed groups like the PAFF for targeted killing but militants have not killed any security official of Lohia’s seniority in recent years.

“This is just a beginning of such high profile operations,” the PAFF said in a statement on social media, adding that the killing were a “small gift” to Home Minister Amit Shah, who arrived in Kashmir on Monday on a three-day visit.

Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the PAFF statement.

Share
Leave a Comment

Recent Posts

  • Pakistan

Punjab starts implementing plan to combat smog

The Punjab government has initiated implementation of a comprehensive strategy to combat environmental pollution and…

28 mins ago
  • Pakistan

Apni Chhat, Apna Ghar: CM Maryam approves 3-marla plot scheme

Punjab Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif has approved a scheme to provide three-marla plots…

28 mins ago
  • Pakistan

Seven outlaws arrested, weapons recovered

The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police on Saturday apprehended seven criminals involved in various illegal…

30 mins ago
  • Pakistan

DC inaugurates 7th agricultural population census

Deputy Commissioner Larkana Dr. Sharjeel Noor Channa has inaugurated the 7th Agricultural Population Census. The…

30 mins ago
  • Pakistan

PTI arming ‘youth force activists and Afghan nationals,’ says Azma

Punjab's Information Minister Azma Bokhari has accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of arming activists and…

30 mins ago
  • Pakistan

Danyal says PTI’s political decline exposed before people

Parliamentary Secretary for Information and Broadcasting, Barrister Daniyal Chaudhry, blasted PTI's political decline, saying Bushra…

30 mins ago