Srinagar: Police on Friday fired tear gas to disperse Kashmiri Pandits in Budgam who took to the streets shouting slogans and protesting against the killings of Pandits in the Kashmir Valley.
Rahul Bhat, a revenue department official at Chadoora in Budgam district, was shot dead at his office a day earlier. His death triggered protests at various places and widespread condemnation.
Police fired tear smoke shells to disperse a group of Kashmiri Pandits who tried to march towards the Srinagar Airport Road in Budgam district, witnesses said.
The protesters raised slogans against the administration for its alleged failure in protecting the lives of minority community members in Kashmir. Additional security forces were deployed in the area.
Bhat was cremated on Friday in Jammu. Meanwhile, Kashmiri Pandits living in government quarters in north Kashmir's Kupwara district also held a protest against the killing. The demonstrators, including women, assembled on the Kupwara-Srinagar highway and chanted slogans against the killers of Bhat.
“We want to know why we are being made a target and what our fault is? ”a protester asked.
Bhat's killing is the latest in a series of attacks on migrant workers and local minorities taking place in Kashmir over the last eight months. This is also the third attack on a member of the minority community in the Valley this year.
On April 13, a Rajput, Satish Kumar Singh, was shot dead in Kulgam. On April 4, a Kashmiri Pandit, Bal Krishan, was injured in a militant attack near his residence in Shopian district.
Meanwhile, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah termed police action on protesters shameful. “It's shameful that legitimate 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 as every problem resembles a nail. If the LG's government can't protect Kashmir Pandits, they have a right to protest," Omar tweeted.
“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 and by any yardstick you choose to use, Kashmir is far from normal today,” he said in another tweet.
Another former chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti alleged that she was denied permission to visit Bhat's family and was put under house arrest. "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 & pandits empathise with each other's pain doesn't fit into their vicious communal narrative," she tweeted.
She also appealed to people of J&K to stand together in these turbulent times. "In view of targeted killings, I appeal to people of J&K to stand together in these turbulent times so that GOI doesn't use this tragic incident to further malign muslims across the country," she added.
Meanwhile, mass resignation by more than 350 Kashmiri Pandit Prime Minister Package Employees in Kashmir has been sent to Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha today. (Inputs from UNI)
