The brother of Mushtaq Ahmed Lone, the National Conference minister who was assassinated during the Assembly elections, was shot dead today in his house at Sogam in Kupwara district. Unidentified gunmen shot Ghulam Mohiuddin Lone as he drove up to his house and alighted from his Maruti Zen along with his nephew, Qaiser Jamsheed, at around 4.30 p.m. Lone, a former militant who later reached out to the Centre for talks, died in seconds.S D Singh, SSP Kupwara, told The Indian Express over the phone that Lone had given his two personnel security officers the day off for Id. The Lone family is also guarded by the police and one CRPF company which is stationed in a building near their house. Sources, quoting eyewitnesses, said neither the CRPF personnel nor the police guard on duty retaliated when Lone was being fired upon.Singh said police were combing the neighbourhood. Kupwara is a militant stronghold for groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Al-Badr and Lashkar-e-Toiba. ‘‘We are on the job and we will hopefully nab the assailants,’’ he added.Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani condemned the killing in New Delhi, saying, ‘‘This only indicates that anti-India forces continue to be active.’’A former Muslim Mujahideen commander, Lone struck out on his own in 1994 when he, along with four other militants—Firdous Baba alias Babar Badr of Muslim Janbaz Force, Imran Rahi of Hizbul Mujahideen, Bilal Lodhi of Al-Barq and Abid Ahmad of Hizbullah—formed the ‘Forum for Permanent Resolution of Kashmir’ in 1994. In 1995, the forum held talks with the then Union Home minister S B Chavan.Lone’s brother Mushtaq Ahmed, law and parliamentary affairs in the Farooq Abdullah government, was shot dead on September 11 while he was campaigning for the Assembly elections. His nephew Jamsheed was later fielded from Lolab by the NC, and he won the seat after defeating People’s Conference candidate Abdul Haq Khan.
