SRINAGAR: Stepping up attacks ahead of the local body elections in Jammu and Kashmir, terrorists gunned down two National Conference workers in downtown Srinagar on Friday morning.Soon after the attack, Muzamil Jan, a woman who had filed her papers to contest as an independent candidate from the Dalgat ward, withdrew her nomination On Thursday, two BJP candidates and a Congress nominee had withdrawn from the polls due to threats. With three days to go for the first phase of the election, 13 BJP candidates have so far pulled out of the race and resigned from the basic membership of the party.On Wednesday, unidentified men had set on fire the paddy crop of Ghulam Mohammed Khan, a BJP candidate from Dooru Verinag in south Kashmir. He is one of the 30 candidates in south Kashmir whose names are on the ‘hit list’ of terrorists.On Thursday, unidentified men also attacked the Srinagar residence of BJP candidate Showkat Raja. The attackers doused the gate of his residence with petrol and set it on fire.The victims of Friday’s attack were identified as Mustaq Ahmad Wani and Nazir Ahmad, both close aides of legislator Habba Kadal. Another person, Shakeel Ahmad, was wounded in the attack. The trio was walking down a street along with two others when terrorists opened fire at them at Karfali Mohalla in Habba Kadal. The assailants managed to flee the spot, eyewitnesses said.Farooq Abdullah, president of National Conference, which is boycotting the elections along with PDP, denounced the attack as heinous and despicable. Party vice-president Omar Abdullah said the security situation had gone out of the hands of the Governor’s administration. “The administration had removed security of some of our functionaries. There seems to be some sort of a design to kill our partymen,” he said.Police said that they have launched a manhunt to nab the terrorists immediately after the attack.

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