Killing of civilians in Kashmir by terrorists is on the rise and at least six innocent persons were shot dead this week by Pakistan-backed terrorists who are trying to create scare and block flow of information of their presence to the security forces.

North Kashmir has become the hotspot of civilian killings where three persons were shot dead in two separate incidents in the wee hours on Saturday, while three young boys were killed earlier this week in Baramulla.

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Reports indicate that some Pakistani terrorists with support of their local accomplices were behind these killings. The motive behind such killings was to create scare among the civilians as the terrorists suspect that information about their movement in the villages of North and South Kashmir was being provided by some local people to the security forces, said an intelligence source.

The killing of terrorists by the security forces has increased during the past some time as the Army has launched the “Operation Allout” to eliminate the ultras.

Two persons were shot dead in the wee hours on Saturday by Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists who abducted them from their house in the Shahgund area of Hajin in Bandipura district. Police said that the terrorists barged into their house and abducted Hassan Dar (45) and his nephew Bashir Ahmad (26) and shot them dead. Their mutilated bodies were spotted outside the village mosque at 3.30 am.

Terrorists also shot dead a civilian Mohammad Ashraf Mir and critically injured his wife in the Sopore town in North Kashmir.

Hajin has become a haven for Pakistani terrorists and efforts of the security forces to eliminate them have not yielded the desired results. Terrorists brutally killed two young boys of the village whom they suspected of being informers of security forces.

Handwritten posters threatening residents of the area against passing on information to the security forces about their presence were some time ago found pasted in the village.

Three boys in their early 20s were shot dead at point blank by terrorists earlier this week in the main town of Baramulla in North Kashmir. Police said that 15 rounds were fired at the boys in the main marketplace. The killed boys were identified as Asif Ahmad Sheikh, Haseeb Ahmad Khan and Mohmmad Asgar.

A report of the Home Ministry has pointed out that Jammu and Kashmir witnessed a hike of more than 166 per cent in civilian causalities in 2017 from a year ago.

It is pertinent to mention that the separatists, including Syed Alishah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, have been giving calls for shutdown in Kashmir whenever some stone-pelter gets killed in cross-fire between the security forces and terrorists, but they remain mum when terrorists kill innocent civilians. Not a single word of condemnation of killing of innocent people by terrorists has come from them.

Reacting to the killing of the three boys by terrorists in Baramulla, former chief minister Omar Abdullah said: “I’d like to see the separatist leaders issue the sort of condemnation they usually reserve for when civilians are killed by security forces.”