OCCUPIED SRINAGAR: Suspected fighters shot dead a bank manager Thursday in Indian-Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), police said, the seventh in a spate of targeted killings in the disputed territory.

For more than three decades, groups have fought half a million Indian soldiers deployed in the Muslim-majority territory, demanding independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan.

An attacker shot the Hindu bank employee, who moved from the western state of Rajasthan a week earlier, in his office with a pistol in the Kulgam area, a police officer told AFP.

“#Injured bank employee namely Vijay Kumar #succumbed to his injuries at hospital,” police said on Twitter.

On Tuesday a Hindu female schoolteacher was also shot dead by fighters in the same area.

Last week suspected fighters also shot dead three off-duty policemen and a television actress, all Muslims, in three separate assassination-style attacks.

Days before that, a Hindu government employee was shot dead inside his office by gunmen who police said belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba.

The Resistance Front (TRF) group claimed responsibility for Kumar’s death on its Telegram channel, though it later deleted the post. The claim could not be independently verified.