In yet another targeted attack on the minority community in the Kashmir valley, a Kashmiri Pandit, who reportedly worked as a bank security guard, was allegedly shot dead by suspected militants in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Sunday.
Police said that the suspected terrorists fired upon Sanjay Sharma, a resident of Achan in Pulwama, while he was on his way to a local market and he was rushed to the hospital, however, he could not be saved.
“Terrorists fired upon one civilian from minority namely Sanjay Sharma S/O Kashinath Sharma R/O Achan Pulwama while on way to local market. He was shifted to hospital however, he succumbed to injuries. There was Armed guard in his village. Area cordoned off. Details shall follow,” Kashmir Zone Police wrote on Twitter.
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The attack came just a day after militants allegedly fired upon and injured Asif Ganai, son of a slain police head constable, outside a mosque in the Bijbehara area of Anantnag on Friday.
Deputy inspector general of police (DIG) south Kashmir, Rayees Mohammad Bhat, said the police are acting swiftly to investigate the matter of the killing of the minority community member and promised to bring justice.
“We will track down the involved terrorists soon and will neutralize them. In the incidents happened in south Kashmir, rigorous investigation is going on, terrorists will soon be neutralized. And we will fail their nefarious designs,” he said.
“Our security situation is strict but under what circumstances this attack happened is a matter of investigation,” the DIG added.
Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti, an organization of pandits condemned the killing saying that Sharma was a non-migrant.
“Shame on (J&K LG) Manoj Sinha. Yet another, non-migrant Kashmiri pandit Killed today. (He) was working as guard at ATM near his residence at Achan Pulwama, is survived by his wife and two children,” KPSS said in a tweet.
In another Tweet on Sunday, they targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government, union home minister Amit Shah and lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha.
“Govt. & @BJP4India cannot handle 75 lac Kashmiri population and want to control POK & Balochistan. #KashmiriPandits are killed like dogs in Kashmir. @HMOIndia and @OfficeOfLGJandK sensor the information that Kashmir is most dangerous place for Kashmiri Pandits in this world,” KPSS wrote on Twitter.
The killing was also condemned by other political leaders.
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Jammu & Kashmir National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah expressed grief on the targeted killing and condemned the attack.
“Deeply saddened to hear of the demise of Sanjay Pandith of Achan in Pulwama district of South Kashmir. Sanjay was working as a bank security guard & was killed in a militant attack earlier today. I unequivocally condemn this attack & send my condolences to his loved ones,” Abdullah said.
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti accused the central government of failing to protect minorities in J&K.
“The vicious cycle of killings doesn’t seem to end. GOI has failed to protect minorities in J&K & reduced them to sitting ducks. Everyone here is paying a heavy price for this facade of normalcy. My deepest condolences to his family,” she wrote on Twitter.
Srinagar Municipal Corporation deputy mayor Parvaiz Qadri also condemned the killing saying, “…Blood continues to flow like water and no one gazes an eye. #Kashmir,” he said.
There have been a series of targeted killings by suspected militants of the pandits, including migrant PM Package employees and non-local migrant workers in Kashmir last year.
The employees, some 4,000 in number, who have been living in transit camps in various parts of Kashmir after they were given government jobs under a special package by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2008, have been demanding their relocation to Jammu till the situation improves in Kashmir.
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Their protests escalated after the May 12 attack on an employee in central Kashmir’s Budgam last year in which 45-year-old Rahul Bhat, a migrant pandit, who was a clerk and was residing in a migrant colony at Sheikhpura was killed.
Since then there have been a few more targeted attacks. In August, Sunil Kumar Bhat, 48, a fruit farmer, was shot dead while Puran Krishan Bhat, a fruit cultivator, was killed near his home on October 15, both in the Shopian district.
Nine Kashmiri Pandits– one in 2020 and four each in 2021 and 2022 – have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir since 2020, according to the information provided by the ministry of home affairs (MHA) to the Parliament in December last year.
LG Sinha in January this year had said that the government was trying to solve their issues ‘sensitively’.
“In a very sensitive way, we are trying to solve the issues of migrant Kashmiri pandits, particularly employees. The pandit employees and Jammu-based employees have been consistently in contact with administration. Whatever their problems we have attempted their solution,” he had said.
“From security point of view, in some areas, the administration, in collaboration with police, has deployed them at those places which are secure,” he had said.