Angry Kashmiri Pandits held noisy demonstrations at a number of locations in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday and had been met with power by the police which used teargas and lathi-charge to disperse them, a day after a authorities worker from their neighborhood Rahul Bhat was killed by Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in his workplace within the valley.
Raising slogans towards Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and the administration, the demonstrators, largely authorities staff posted within the troubled valley and their kin, demanded that they be supplied enough safety or be transferred to Jammu. According to many stories, over 350 staff within the valley submitted their resignation to LG Sinha as they didn’t really feel protected.
A rattled administration pleaded with the demonstrators to name off their protests and introduced that the Lt Governor had arrange an SIT to probe the killing of Bhat within the Tehsil workplace at Chadoora in Budgam district. Security forces claimed that the 2 terrorists concerned within the killing had been gunned down by them on Friday in an encounter in Brar within the Aragam space of Bandipora district in north Kashmir.
The Sheikhpora camp, situated in Budgam of central Kashmir, the place Bhat had been supplied lodging together with different authorities staff, was the epicentre of the protests with individuals marching in direction of the airport highway to dam it earlier than they had been intercepted by the police.
A heavy posse of police personnel stopped the protesters after appeals requesting them to disperse didn’t yield any outcome, resulting in clashes throughout which the safety forces needed to resort to lathi-charge and firing teargas shells. There had been no stories of any harm however some purported photos of individuals allegedly wounded throughout the police motion circulated on social media.
The demonstrators then staged a sit-in and raised slogans towards the Jammu and Kashmir administration and demanded that Lt Governor Manoj Sinha ought to come and guarantee them about their security. However, the Lt Governor was in Sopore attending a operate at the moment.
The protestors had been carrying placards that learn, “I need to be able to tell my children that I did not stay silent”, and in addition displayed the injuries that that they had obtained throughout the lathi cost. They additionally claimed that 4 of their males had been detained by the police. However, there was no official affirmation for this.
Later within the night, it was claimed by protesters that the gates of the Sheikhopora Migrant Colony had been locked from the skin by police allegedly to forestall them from popping out.
In a 35-second video circulating on the social media, dozens of Kashmiri Pandit protestors may be seen assembled round {a photograph} of the deceased on the primary gate of the colony with an equal variety of police personnel on the opposite aspect of the gate that has been blocked.
“We were removed from the dharna by the DIG (central Kashmir) on the assurance that the Lieutenant Governor will come to see us. However, the assurance has been breached … the LG has not come. Now they have locked us inside but for how long will they cage us,” stated one of many protestors.
The LG’s workplace tweeted that the Lt Governor had met the kinfolk of Bhat and “assured justice to the family”
Bhat, 35, was shot useless by two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists at his Tehsil workplace in Chadoora of Budgam district on Thursday.
The protests had been held at Baramulla, Kupwara (North Kashmir), Vessu, Mattan, Qazigund (South Kashmir), and varied elements of Jammu together with the Jagti camp, the place Kashmiri pandit migrants have been supplied concrete lodging since 2007.
In Jammu, the funeral of Bhat witnessed unruly scenes because the BJP leaders together with its J-Ok unit president Ravinder Raina needed to face the ire of mourners. They had been heckled and roughed up and police needed to intervene after they visited the cremation floor in Jammu.
Hundreds of protestors blocked roads and burnt tyres at Muthi, Hazuribagh and Buntalab in Jammu. They raised slogans towards Sinha and the BJP and demanded that Kashmiri Pandits be relocated from the valley.
Residents of Muthi camp led by its president Anil Bhan took out a rally and blocked a highway for hours. “The BJP is ruling this Union Territory through the LG and every failure on the part of LG is theirs. How long will we receive coffins from our homeland? Our boys and girls joined the services in Kashmir in national interest and to serve Kashmir,” Bhan stated.
“Home Minister Amit Shah claimed in parliament about the start of a rehabilitation plan. Since then, dozens of Hindus were killed and four temples suffered damage. Our boys and girls who are serving the people of Kashmir are in fear and terror. Is this the rehabilitation plan?” Jagti camp chief Sunil Kumar requested. As the protests continued throughout the day, it was introduced within the night that the Lt Governor had arrange an SIT to probe the killing of Bhat and his spouse could be given a authorities job.
“A decision has been taken to constitute special investigative team to probe all the aspects of the despicable terror attack. The SHO of the concerned police station has also been attached,” Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha tweeted.
He additionally stated that the administration will bear the academic bills of his daughter.
Mainstream political events of the union territory reacted angrily to the dealing with of protests with former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti interesting to the bulk neighborhood to make sure that Kashmiri Pandits are protected. She even went on to say that native spiritual leaders ought to of their Friday sermons press for the necessity of sustaining brotherhood within the Valley.
Mufti claimed that she had been positioned underneath home arrest to cease her from visiting Budgam to specific solidarity with the protesting Kashmiri Pandits. “Wanted to visit Budgam to express my solidarity with Kashmiri Pandits protesting against GOIs failure to protect them. Have been put under house arrest as the fact that Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits empathise with each other’s pain doesn’t fit into their vicious communal narrative,” the PDP chief stated.
Police officers, nevertheless, refused to touch upon Mufti’s declare. Later, in a video message, Mufti urged the bulk neighborhood within the valley to face by the minorities. “We need to give a message to the whole country of J-K’s brotherhood and its history that we are a secular state and a united people so that the government does not get a chance to defame Muslims,” Mufti stated.
National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah stated it was shameful that respectable and justified protests are met with a heavy-handed response.
“This is not new for the people of Kashmir because when all the administration has is a hammer every problem resembles a nail. If the LG’s Govt can’t protect KPs they have a right to protest,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Tourism is not normalcy; it’s a barometer of economic activity. Normalcy is the absence of fear, the absence of terror, the inability of militants to strike at will, the presence of democratic rule & by any yardstick you choose to use, Kashmir is far from normal today,” Abdullah stated.
Condemning the killing of a policeman in Pulwama on Friday, the NC chief stated focused killings had been persevering with unabated within the valley. “Rahul in his office yesterday, Riyaz Ahmad Thoker, an SPO with J&K police, in his own home today. Targeted killings continue unabated. I can’t condemn this killing strongly enough. May Allah grant Riyaz place in Jannat,” he stated.
Bhat was cremated on Friday in Jammu amid protests by members of the Kashmiri Pandit neighborhood. His spouse and daughter, who had been staying with him at Sheikhpora migrant colony in Budgam, accompanied the physique because it arrived in Jammu from Kashmir.
His brother Sunny lit the pyre on the Buntalab cremation floor as chants of “long live Rahul Bhat” lease the air. The neighborhood members, together with Rahul Bhat’s household, accused the BJP-led authorities on the Centre of constructing younger Kashmiri Hindus “cannon fodder” within the title of rehabilitation of the neighborhood. They additionally stated the incident has shattered their dream of resettling completely within the valley.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”