Excelsior Correspondent
SOPORE, June 26: Militants today shot dead a businessman turned politician in North Kashmir’s Sopore town, police said.
A car workshop owner, Kifayat Hussain Mir, 45, of Boripora Zainageer, was shot at by unidentified militants today morning at his workshop “Zorawar Motors” at Shangargund on Sopore Kupwara Highway, police sources said.
Sources said two unidentified militants arrived at his shop and opened indiscriminate fire on him and killed him on spot.
Mir was also operating a Himayat Centre– an employment and capacity-building scheme of the Union Minister of Rural Development, under which Kashmiri youth are provided professional training at corporate and given jobs in different parts of the country-at the same workshop.
Mir had contested the 2008 Assembly elections from Sopore as an Independent candidate but lost to National Conference’s Haji Mohammad Ashraf.
Sources said that he was police friendly and was supporting police in community police initiatives. “He had received threats from militants in the past for his pro-police initiatives”, sources added.
Police suspected that the attack has been carried out by the militants of Hizbul Mujahideen.
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