Senior Hurriyat leader shot dead

Unidentified gunmen shot dead Hafizullah Mir, a senior Hurriyat leader and a close aide of Syed Ali Geelani, in Achabal area of south Kashmir's Anantnag district on Tuesday morning.

Mir's wife was also injured in the attack, reports said. Unidentified gunmen barged inside the residence of Mir at Budhra area of Achabal, 75 km from here, and fired upon him. He and his wife were injured and were taken to district hospital Anantnag, where Mir was declared brought dead.

Mir was district president of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat founded by octogenarian Geelani. Local media reported that he had been receiving threat calls from unknown numbers for the last one month. Mir, according to a local news portal, had demanded that the authorities should verify and locate the origin of these calls and make it public. He had warned that if anything ‘untoward’ happened to him, the government would be responsible for it.

Earlier, on September 8, unidentified gunmen had killed Hakim-ul-Rehman Sultani, associated with Geelani led Hurriyat, outside his home in Reshipora, Bomai, Sopore in northern Baramulla district.

Like Mir, he too was released from jail some weeks before his killing.