Kashmiri Muslims need to protect Pandits from assailants: Mehbooba Mufti

Kashmiri Pandits are an asset of Kashmir. Kashmiri Muslims need to take every possible measure to provide a sense of security to the minority community and save them from assailants,” Mehbooba Mufti said.

Former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on February 27 appealed to Kashmiri Muslims to “provide safety to the minority community members and save them from attackers,” as she visited the family of a Kashmiri Pandit who was shot dead in Pulwama on Sunday morning (February 26.) Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq also condemned the killing.

“Kashmiri Muslims are ashamed of Pandit Sanjay Sharma’s killing. We safeguarded the ethos of brotherhood and communal harmony when the entire country indulged in Hindu-Muslim riots in 1947. Kashmiri Pandits are an asset of Kashmir. Kashmiri Muslims need to take every possible measure to provide a sense of security to the minority community and save them from assailants,” Ms. Mufti said, after meeting the victim’s family. 

Sharma’s killing in Pulwama’s Achan has come after 30 years. It was in the 1990s that a Pandit from the village was killed by militants. Referring to the killing, Ms. Mufti said, “Situation is getting worse with each passing day in Jammu & Kashmir. We are in between two guns. On one hand, the government atrocities in the name of curbing militancy are unabated. Detention and raids are a continuous process. ED, NIA and other agencies are seizing properties of Kashmiris,” Ms. Muti added.

She appealed to the government to provide a government job to the wife of Sharma. Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is under house arrest, also condemned the killing and termed it “a gruesome act”.

“Killing of human beings in such a manner is a tragedy that Kashmir has been witnessing for the past three and a half decades now, with no seeming end in near future. The State policy of extreme repression and unilateral interventions countered by equally extreme and viscous vengeance is a vortex we have got caught into, leading to extreme suffering of Kashmiris of all hues,” Mirwaiz said.

He said Kashmiri pandits living in Kashmir unfortunately have become sitting ducks in the current situation. “Prevailing coercive environment with no space for outreach, contact among communities and people is also fast disappearing ,” he added.

He said there was no let up in arbitrary dismissals of Kashmiris from government service by the authorities. “Such policies only exacerbate the situation. The authorities should reconsider all these measures rather than continue with them,” Mirwaiz said.