After a two-week lull in militant violence, unknown assailants struck at a village in Bandipora, beheading two brothers after picking them up at gun point from their residence last night. The murder came to light after villagers stumbled on the decapitated bodies in a paddy field this morning. Around the same time, suspected militants sprayed bullets on a group of villagers in Banderpora, South Kashmir, injuring six persons critically. Police officials said the attack was in revenge for participating in the Lok Sabha polls. At 8.30 pm, the assailants barged into the Khan family’s mud house at Chak Arsalakhan and dragged the two brothers — Manzoor Khan and Riyaz Khan — out. ‘‘They kidnapped them from the home and later cut off their heads and dumped the bodies in the paddy field.’’ said a police officer at Bandipora police station. The beheading, though, gruesome, isn’t new in Kashmir where suspected militants have used extreme tactics to send across their message. In 1995, a Norwegian — Hans Christian Ostro — was beheaded by a militant group, Al Faran. In Srinagar, a day after protests broke out in Batamaloo over the detention of three youths by the Army, the J-K police registered a case against the Army. On May 16, Army troops picked up three youths from the locality that led to protests. They were released after the police intervened. In Pampore, hundreds of villagers spilled onto the streets protesting against the killing of a muezzin by Army troops yesterday. The locals alleged that Jalaludin Lone was on his way to the mosque when troops fired at him, killing him on the spot. The Army spokesperson in Srinagar denied the muezzin was killed by troops, saying Lone was caught in a crossfire between militants and troops.
