DIG Sujit Kumar said Kashmir freedom fighter (KFF), a pseudonym of a terrorist organisation, claimed responsibility for the attack on Bhat, who is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. The area has been cordoned off and a search has been started to nab the attacker.
Bhatt was seventh murder of kashmiri pandit Since 2020. The killing reopened old wounds and hampered efforts to restore confidence in the government, especially among members of the community who returned to the Valley as part of a government resettlement scheme that offered jobs and housing.
Kashmiri Pandit Revenue clerk Rahul Bhat, 35, has been protesting in Jammu for the past five months following the murder of 35-year-old Rahul Bhat at Chadoora tehsil office in Budgam district on May 12. The protests intensified after 36-year-old Dalit teacher Rajni Bala. A resident of Jammu’s Samba district, she was shot dead on May 31 outside her government school in Kulgam district.
“Our worst fears have come true once again with the fresh murder. We have already fled the valley. Otherwise, we feel that many of us would have been dead by now,” said a protester, demanding shifting of government employees of Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir to Jammu.
He said people are dead and lives are on, but “this government is ignoring our pleas to shift us out of the valley”.
The latest person to die, Puran Bhat, belonged to a small group of people who fled the Valley during the peak of separatist militancy in the early 1990s.
He was among about 455 Kashmiri Pandits living in Shopian, where officials said “groups of the community” have adequate security. DIG Sujit Kumar said: “For this cluster, we had our guards, security. We are looking for the reason (for omission). He had gone out on a scooter and returned to his home (when he was fatally attacked).
Kumar said that in case of any lapse, action would be taken against the guards and officers in charge of the area.
In August, 45-year-old Sunil Kumar Nath was shot dead by terrorists, and was on his way to his siblings’ garden in Chottigam in Shopian district when he was shot and injured in a sneak attack. Chottigam is predominantly a village of Kashmiri Pandits and the people have large orchards of apples and other fruits, while some are chemists.
Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and political parties condemned Puran Bhat murder, Sinha said the attack was “a cowardly act of cowardice”. The NC condemned the “shameless and cowardly attack”, while the PDP accused the J&K government of “blatantly turning a blind eye to the pain” of Kashmiri Pandits living and working in the Valley.
BJP General Secretary (Organisation) Ashok Kaul condemned the “barbaric” killing and offered his condolences to the family. He added: “These anti-national elements will never succeed…the purpose of these attacks is to disturb peace in the region.”
(Sanjay Khajuria in Jammu with inputs)
watch Jammu and Kashmir: Terrorist shot dead a civilian in Shopian