Hundreds of protesting displaced Kashmiri Pandit employees, who are seeking their relocation from the Valley, on Saturday blocked the Jammu-Akhnoor road to protest the latest targeted killing of their community member by terrorists in Kashmir.

Puran Krishan Bhat was fired upon by terrorists near his residence in the Chowdhary Gund area of south Kashmir’s Shopian district this afternoon, resulting in his death. The Pandits, employed under the Prime Minister’s employment package, have been staging a protest at the relief commissioner’s office in Jammu for the past five months following the killing of their colleague Rahul Bhat in Kashmir on May 12.

As the news of the latest killing of a Kashmiri Pandit broke out, they came out of the protest site and marched towards the main road and blocked the highway, amid sloganeering to denounce the target killings by terrorists and the alleged failure of the government to deal with the situation.

“Our worst fears have again come true with the latest killing. Had we not fled the Valley, many of us would have been done to death,” said Nikhil Kaul, one of the protesters. He said they had been saying that the situation in the Valley was not safe for them, but “the government remained unmoved and paid no heed to their pleas for relocation”.

Yogesh Pandit, another protester, said the administration was trying to pressure them to rejoin their duties by issuing “death warrants” in the form of making biometric attendance mandatory and stopping their salaries. “The killing of Bhat exposed the government’s claims about the improved security situation in the valley. We will not return till the situation becomes normal,” he said. “This government is deaf, dumb and blind,” the agitated Pandit said, seeking to know for what fault of theirs they were being brutally killed by terrorists. Rashtriya Bajrang Dal activists also joined the protesters and set ablaze an effigy of Pakistan.

Courtesy: The Tribune India : 15th Oct , 2022