SRI NAGAR: A labourer from Bihar, who was shot at and injured by militants in the first attack on non-locals by militants on Wednesday in Sopore area of Baramulla district, was supposed to return home after completing his last assignment but is now recuperating in a Srinagar hospital. Shafi Alam, hailing from Balia in Bihar, told this newspaper that at around 9 am on Wednesday, when he left his home and walked a few metres, a person approached him and asked him whether he had a matchbox.
“I told him that I don’t smoke and walked ahead. But he followed me. When I entered the house of my landlord to tell him to send some money to my family, the person followed me in and took out a gun to shoot me,” he said.
Alam said the landlord’s wife pleaded with the gunman to spare his life. “The gunman did not listen to her and fired two bullets at me,” he said. One of the bullets hit Alam on the neck and another on the right side of chest. Alam was taken to local hospital which referred him to Srinagar’s SMHS hospital where he is now undergoing treatment.