Opposition turns the Mir Bazar shooting into a referendum on the Centre’s post-Article 370 promise. Khera says Shah no longer deserves his office.
KASHMIR : In a crowded market in south Kashmir, motorcycle-borne assailants opened fire on a CRPF checkpoint in Kulgam district on Wednesday afternoon, at about 2:15 p.m., then fled. Within hours the political fallout had overtaken the gunfire.
Casualties disputed
Early reports differ on the toll. Some outlets said three personnel were injured. Others reported two jawans of the CRPF’s 46th Battalion hurt. Security forces cordoned off the area and began a search for the attackers, according to initial reports. This account will be updated as official figures emerge.
“What happened to the promise?”
Congress leader Pawan Khera went after the Home Minister directly. He reminded the country that the Centre said in 2019 that scrapping Article 370 would decisively end terrorism, and said an attack on security personnel in an open market raises hard questions about that claim. According to ABP News, Khera went further and said Amit Shah does not deserve to remain Home Minister.
The criticism came from other quarters too. Aam Aadmi Party MLA Mehraj Malik called the attack a failure of security and intelligence, per the same report. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti condemned the shooting.
The Kulgam attack lands on a government that has built much of its Kashmir narrative on the idea that the valley has turned a corner. Opposition parties now argue that a checkpoint, the most basic layer of the security grid, was attacked in broad daylight, and that the assailants got away.
The government has yet to respond to Khera’s charge in detail. Whether the attackers are caught and how quickly, may shape how far this argument travels.
Two years after the Centre promised peace, the question hanging over Kulgam is not who fired the shots. It is who will answer for them.
