What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
SRINAGAR: Despite the J&K administration’s effort to lock down the Kashmiri Pandits inside their camps, their unprecedented protests against the brutal murder of fellow community member Rahul Bhat continued for the fourth day.
In a bid to contain the growing protests, the J&K administration had deployed heavy security outside the camps to restrict them from taking the streets. It also came to light that they had connected electricity to the fence of a camp to stop the protestors.
Pandits living at Baramulla transit camp said that the boundary wall of the transit camp was connected to an electric wire to stop them from taking the streets. However, the administration had to later backtrack and apologise for their action.
“We came to know about the situation after some of our community members faced minor electric shocks during the protests,” the Pandits told The New Indian. “Later officials removed it and apologized,” they added.
To stop further protests in the Sheikhpora area of Budgam several hundred police and paramilitary forces have been deployed outside the transit camp. The camp residents are not allowed to come out of the camp.
In Budgam, outside the camp housing Pandit government employees in Sheikhpora, protesters had blocked roads and raised slogans against the government. Amidst chaotic scenes and anti-administration slogans, the protesters questioned the government’s narrative of “normalcy and security”.
Similar protests were also reported from Anantnag in south Kashmir. The Pandits have assembled in a tent inside the transit camp to protest against the murder. Similar reports are reported from Handwara, Anantnag and Qazigund. It needs to be mentioned here that protests were dealt with force in many places.
One of the protesters in Sheikhpora, said: “This is not the first such killing. The government has been making many claims about our security. All their assurances have failed. In another six months, there will be another protest over another killing. This has to end.”
J&K Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha has ordered a probe into the tear gas shelling incident on protesting Kashmiri Pandits on May 13. “Strict action will be taken against officials involved in the action,” administrative sources said.
Lt. Governor Sinha said, “Rahul Bhat’s killing is a targeted one. SIT to probe it from all angles along with probing the use of force to disperse Kashmiri migrant protestors in aftermath of the incident. Directions were given to the administration to not use force anywhere.”
Commenting on the police’s use of force on the protestors, former chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted three days back, “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. (sic)”
