Two non-locals were shot dead in Jammu and Kashmir‘s Srinagar and Pulwama districts on Saturday amid a spate of civilian killings blamed by police on terrorists. Arvind Kumar, a resident of Bihar, died on the spot after he was shot at outside a park in Eidgah area of Srinagar, police said. Saghir Ahmad from Uttar Pradesh succumbed to injuries in a hospital after militants fired at and critically injured him in Pulwama district. 

The killings come as police claimed to have gunned down terrorists it says were involved in killings of seven civilians including members of minority communities in Srinagar.

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The targeted civilian killings in Kashmir have caused panic-stricken families of many government employees, who had returned under the Prime Minister’s special employment scheme for Kashmiri migrants, to flee their accommodations.

Three militants, including Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Umar Mushtaq Khandey, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Pampore area of Pulwama district on Saturday, a senior police officer said. Khandey was involved in the killing of two policemen in Srinagar earlier this year, according to Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar.

Kumar said in a tweet that police was “committed to hunt down these terrorists who try to create fear among masses and spread mischief & tumult in the valley.”

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Kumar later told reporters in Srinagar that none of the civilians killed last week had been provided security by the police.

He refuted criticism by political parties that the killings were a result of lapses in security. The terrorists chose soft targets, he said, adding it is not possible to provide security to all soft targets.

He said security forces acted swiftly and identified all five terrorists involved in the killings.

“Two of them have been neutralised and the other three will also be tracked down soon,” he added, referring to the gunfights in the Pulwama and Srinagar on Friday.