Eight leaders and activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP are among the 10 workers of different mainstream political parties who have been shot dead by -unidentified gunmen-, widely believed to be pro-Pakistan militants, in Kashmir in the last five months of the year 2020. Even as it does not take long for the family members of a victim and the residents of a neighbourhood to ascertain the identity of the assassins, media persons and politicians do conveniently call them -unidentified gunmen.- For years, the behaviour of the muted civil society after every assassination has implicitly pointed fingers towards the assailants.

If an assassination was believed or perceived to be the handiwork of the pro-government counterinsurgents, the police or the security forces, there would be protests and a call for shutdown from the militants or the separatists. There would also be a beeline of media persons, politicians and human rights activists to the victim-s home and an abundance of the condemnation statements. Contrarily, whenever the elimination was perceived to have been done by the militants, the Valley would be invariably a mute spectator. There would be no shutdown, no public condemnation and no special treatment to the news on the front pages of the local newspapers.