Suspected militants shot dead a Kashmiri Pandit man in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district on Thursday, the police said.

The man, Rahul Bhat, was killed while he was at the tehsildar’s office in Budgam’s Chadoora. He was taken to the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital in Srinagar for treatment, where he succumbed to his injuries, according to the police.

Bhat was said to have been an employee of the tehsildar’s office.

“Preliminary investigation reveals that two terrorists are involved in this heinous crime and have used pistol for committing this crime,” the police said on Twitter.

National Conference Vice-President Omar Abdullah said that he unequivocally condemns the “murderous militant attack” on Bhat. “Targeted killings continue and a sense of fear grows unchecked,” he said. “This young man had his entire life ahead of him and to know that his life was so cruelly extinguished today is tragic.”

The Peoples Democratic Party also condemned the killing, and said that its thoughts and prayers are with Bhat’s family. “Despite deployment of security forces in every nook and corner of the Valley, even government offices aren’t safe,” the party said on Twitter.

In the past eight months, suspected militants have attacked several members of religious minorities and migrant workers in Kashmir.

In October, alleged militants had killed seven civilians in five days. Of these, four belonged to Hindu or Sikh communities in the Valley. Three others were Kashmiri Muslims.