SRINAGAR: Terrorists shot dead a civilian in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, officials said here.
Satish Kumar Singh, a Rajput, was shot by terrorists in Kakran area of the south Kashmir district at around 7.30 pm.
Officials said the two police personnel posted at his house rushed out after hearing gunfire and found Singh in a pool of blood.
Fifty-five-year-old Singh, who received one bullet in the head and two in the chest, was taken to a hospital in Srinagar where he died.
"Civilian Satish Kumar Singh, a resident of Kulgam, succumbed to his injuries at hospital. Terrorists involved in this gruesome terror crime will be neutralised soon. Search to track the involved terrorists in progress," the police said in a tweet.
Officials suspect that a new recruit of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group was involved in the attack.
Kulgam and Shopian districts have small pockets with Rajput families who have not migrated out of Jammu and Kashmir.
They are mainly into apple business.
Terrorists have stepped up attacks on civilians in south Kashmir over the past 10 days.
Four labourers hailing from outside Jammu and Kashmir were injured in two separate attacks in Pulwama last week, while a Kashmiri Pandit shopkeeper was shot and injured by terrorists in Shopian.
A major tragedy was averted on Wednesday after security forces detected an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by terrorists on a busy road in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district, police said.
A police party noticed a suspicious polythene bag lying along the Gath road on the outskirts of Doda town late in the evening, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Doda, Abdul Qayoom told PTI.
He said the traffic on the road was immediately suspended and the Special Operations Group of the local police, Army and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel reached the spot, along with the bomb disposal squad, which after inspection confirmed the presence of an IED inside the bag.
The IED was subsequently neutralised by experts at a nearby isolated place without causing any damage, the SSP said.
He said police have registered a case and launched a probe to identify those responsible for planting the IED on the road.