Sajid Raina
Kupwara, May 13: Scores of Kashmiri Pandits on Friday held a protest against the killing of a 36-year-old Kashmiri Pandit employee by militants inside his office in Budgam’s Chadoora.
On Thursday, unidentified militants barged inside Tehsildar’s office at Chadoora village in Budgam and shot dead Rahul Bhat. Appointed under the government’s special package for return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits, he was working in the department for a decade now.
Kashmiri Pandits putting up at a secured colony in Kupwara hit the streets and blocked Srinagar-Kupwara highway.
The protesters chanted slogans against the central government and BJP, demanding an end to the killings.
“We are being killed every day here. Our lives are not so cheap. We ask the administration to keep us safe or we will leave Kashmir to protect our lives,” said one of the protesters.
Terming the killing of Rahul Bhat at Tehsil office Chadoora as a major security lapse, they blamed the central government and the administration for failing to protect them.
Meanwhile, PDP chief and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said that she was put by administration under house arrest at his Fairview residence on Gupkar Road in Srinagar.
“Wanted to visit Budgam to express my solidarity with Kashmiri Pandits protesting against GOIs failure to protect them. Have been put under house arrest as the fact the Kashmiri Muslims & Pandits empathise with each other’s pain doesn’t fit into their vicious communal narrative,” she tweeted.
