Rayees Shah
Around evening time, Two men came inside the house of Amreen Bhat, 35, in Hushroo area of Budgam’s Chadoora belt. The men asked a young nephew of the TV artist, Amreen to call her out. As soon as she came out, the two men fired bullets at her injuring the TV artist and her 10-year-old nephew.
As soon as the family members heard the gunshots they ran out to find the duo lying in a pool of blood, Amreen’s relative told The Kashmiriyat. They said that the family members rushed the duo to Chadoora hospital, from where they were referred to Srinagar, however, Amreen succumbed to her injuries on the way to the hospital. The incident left the entire area in a deep shock.
Amreen is survived by an old father and a sister. Amreen had been acting in various television programs to earn a livelihood for her family. “She was the sole bread earner to the family,” her father Khazir Mohammed told The Kashmiriyat.
He said that the killing has left the family in deep shock. “We do not understand why she was killed. Nobody has come here as of yet. No official has come here because I come from a poor family,” he said, pleading for Justice.
The Jammu Kashmir Police said that the attack was conducted by three militants of the proscribed terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taliba (LeT).
“At around 1955 hrs, terrorists fired upon one lady Amreen Bhat Daughter of Khazir Mohd Bhat R/o Hushroo Chadoora at her home. She was shifted to a hospital in an injured condition where doctors declared her dead. Her 10-year-old nephew who was also at home received a bullet injury on his arm,” Kashmir Police tweeted.
Her fellow artists remembered her as a kind soul who always was helpful to others and was very vocal about the wrongs prevailing in society. “If she had committed any error, killing is never the solution,” a local said.
Locals in large numbers visited the family to express their condolences to the family.
Former Jammu Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah reacted to the militant attack and Amreen Bhat’s death, by taking to Twitter. “Shocked & deeply saddened by the murderous militant attack on Amreen Bhat. Sadly Ambreen lost her life in the attack & her nephew was injured. There can be no justification for attacking innocent women & children like this. May Allah grant her place in Jannat,” wrote the Kashmir CM.
Earlier on Tuesday, a policeman named Saifullah Qadri was killed and his daughter injured in a militant attack in Srinagar city.
Mehbooba Mufti, the former chief Minister of Jammu Kashmir said, “In Kashmir, mournings have sadly become the norm & a daily ritual. Countless innocent civilians are killed in one way or the other & devastated families are left behind to pick up the pieces. What will it take for GOI to recalibrate their J&K policy to end this bloodshed?”
In another tweet, she said, “GOI keeps blowing its trumpet of normalcy in J&K even when such gruesome incidents suggest otherwise. My heart goes out to Ambreen Bhat’s family & pray her nephew recovers swiftly.”