Two village defence guards were abducted and killed by militants in Jammu’s Kishtwar district on Thursday.

The Kashmir Tigers militant group has claimed responsibility for the killings. The attack came after a weeks-long lull in militant attacks in the Jammu region, the period marked by a spurt in attacks in Kashmir.

The village defence guards are civilian counter-insurgency militia who play a key role in countering militancy in Jammu’s 10 districts. There are more than 30,000 village defence guards, who are armed with sophisticated arms. Officials identified the slain men as Nazir Ahmad and Kuldeep Kumar, both killed in the Ooli Kuntwara forests of Kishtwar district.

The Kashmir Tigers claimed that the two were killed after they continued to chase the duo despite warnings. A viral photograph on social media shows the two blindfolded and their hands tied from behind.

Police are yet to officially confirm the killing or authenticate the photograph which also shows the two were bleeding profusely from face and nose. While militant attacks had abated for weeks in Jammu, security forces killed three militants in Akhnoor on October 29. The attack came on a day the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly saw a heated exchange of words between the BJP and the National Conference.

Kishtwar BJP MLA Shagun Parihar, in multiple interviews during the day, said that the BJP had hammered the final nail in the coffin of Article 370, “burying it for good, and now its return is impossible under any circumstances”, adding that it had brought peace to the Union Territory.

In April, militants killed a village defence guard member, Mohammad Shareef, 48, a resident of Lower Ponar at Basantgarh in Udhampur.

Reacting to a grenade attack in Srinagar on Sunday, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah had written on X: “The last few days have been dominated by headlines of attacks and encounters in parts of the Valley. Today’s news of a grenade attack on innocent shoppers at the ‘Sunday market’ in Srinagar is deeply disturbing. There can be no justification for targeting innocent civilians. The security apparatus must do everything possible to end this spurt of attacks at the earliest so that people can go about their lives without any fear.”

The attacks in Jammu have increased after the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 9, leaving 10 security force personnel and nine pilgrims dead and dozens injured.

Four die in accident

Four persons, including a minor, died and two others were injured when a vehicle skidded off the road and rolled into a gorge in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district on Thursday, officials said.

The SUV skidded off the road, rolled down a hill, and plunged into a deep gorge in Ganjote of Mahore after the driver lost control, they said. Three persons died on the spot, while three others suffered injuries and were rushed to a hospital, they said.

After receiving first aid, the injured were referred to the district hospital in Reasi, where one of the three injured succumbed to his injuries.

Additional reporting by PTI