Puran Krishan Bhat was a frequent visitor to his home town in Shopian district and never faced any problem, and on Thursday he had gone there to join his brother to attend their apple orchard.
He had shifted his wife and two children -- a son studying in Class 5 and a daughter who is in Class 7 -- to Jammu in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, otherwise all of them were living in Shopian, said one of Bhat's relatives waiting for his body in Jammu.
Bhat was shot dead by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district on Saturday, according to the police.
As the news of his killing spread, a pall of gloom descended on Muthi locality here on the outskirts of the city, which also houses a large migrant pandit township.
Bhat's wife and the two children were in a state of shock as relatives and neighbours, who rushed there, were seen consoling them.
"The news of his death came as a shock for us. They are brutes who do not want any Indian nationalist in the Valley," a relative of Bhat said.
"The government must do something to stop such killings. What wrong did he do to anyone?" a neighbour said.
The mortal remains of Bhat will reach here late Saturday night and the cremation will take place on Sunday, officials said.
Divisional commissioner, Jammu, Ramesh Kumar, additional director general of police, Jammu zone, Mukesh Singh, deputy commissioner, Jammu, Avny Lavasa and other senior officers rushed to the residence of Bhat to express their condolences with the family.
"All possible assistance will be provided to the family," Kumar told reporters.
Reacting to the killing of Bhat, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee working president Ramban Bhalla said it as a 'grave failure' of the Union Home Ministry which directly deals with the law and order situation in the Union Territory.
Bhalla, who chaired a meeting of senior leaders here, called for urgent and effective measures to save innocent lives in Kashmir.
"The party condemns the killing, which is in line with a series of such shocking incidents. It reflects that the situation in Kashmir is very grim, contrary to the claims of normalcy by the central and J-K administration," the party said in a statement.
It said the BJP-led central government has utterly failed to ensure the safety and security of common people in Kashmir, which is very unfortunate.
Bhalla and other party leaders demanded that the culprits should be identified and dealt with sternly
"Home Minister Amit Shah should speak about the series of incidents of selective and targeted killings, especially of the minority community in the recent past," Bhalla said.
The Aam Aadmi Party also condemned the incident and said the "bloodbath is going on unabated in Kashmir and the BJP government as well as the LG administration are busy in spreading claims of normalcy through numerical figures and is treating loss of precious human lives as a number game."
"Things are not well in any context as people are not even safe in their lawns and orchards where gunmen appear from nowhere, fire volley of bullets, take innocent human lives and then escape from the scene," AAP state spokesperson Nawab Nasir said in a statement.
He said the loss of every single human life irrespective of caste, color, creed and religion is painful and the society should stand against it to condemn the inhumane act.
