Srinagar:
The son of the owner of popular food joint Krishna Dhaba, located in a high-security area of the city, was shot at by terrorists from a close range and critically wounded on Wednesday evening, police said.
The victim, Akash Mehra, was immediately rushed to SMHS Hospital where his condition was stated to be critical, officials said.
Banned terror outfit Muslim Janbaz Force has claimed responsibility for the attack, they said.
The eatery, which is famous for serving vegetarian food, is located in Durganag area of the city. Several high-profile installations like the office of UN Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) and the residence of the Jammu and Kashmir chief justice are located within 200 metres of the food joint.
The police are looking at the CCTV footage after some eyewitnesses claimed that the terrorists ran away.
The attack comes on a day when a group of envoys including those from several European Union countries and a few Organisation of Islamic Countries’ member states began a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir to get a first-hand account of the situation in the newly carved union territory, especially after the recently concluded local body elections.
The envoys are putting up in a hotel barely two kilometres from the attack site.
During a private visit of the first batch of envoys to the union territory in October 2019, terrorists had shot dead five migrant labourers hailing from West Bengal in Shopian.
This is the second attack on non-Kashmiri residents in the city after the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier in January, a jeweller, Satpal, settled in Kashmir for the last five decades, was shot dead. The Resistance Front, a shadow outfit of Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group, had claimed responsibility for the attack.
