The killing of a Hindu teacher on Tuesday by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam district has sparked major uproar among Kashmiri Pandits, who threatened to undertake mass migration from the valley if they were not relocated to safe places within the next 24 hours.
Rajni Bala (36), who belonged to Jammu’s Samba district but was posted at a government school in Gopalpora, Kulgam, is the second killing of a non-Muslim government employee in May and the seventh targeted killing in Kashmir this month.
Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits blocked highways in Kulgam and Srinagar to press the demand for relocation from the Valley. They shouted anti-Lieutenant Governor (LG) slogans and demanded justice.
The Centre had, on April 6, informed the parliament that killing of those from the minority community in the Kashmir valley peaked in 2021, as since 2019 four Kashmiri Pandits among 14 Hindus were killed by terrorists. The killings were reported from Anantnag, Srinagar, Pulwama and Kulgam districts in the Valley.
In 2017, 11 such killings were reported.
Presenting data on such killings in the House, Minister for State (MoS) Nityanand Rai said 34 persons belonging to minority communities were killed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir in the last five years, including 11 in 2021.
Here’s a list of some Kashmiri Hindus killed recently:
May 17, 2022 – One 52-year-old man, identified as Ranjit Singh (52), son of Krishan Lal of Rajouri, was killed while three others were injured after terrorists lobbed a grenade inside a newly-opened wine shop in the Dewan Bagh area in Baramulla district.
May 12, 2022 – Rahul Bhat, a government employee, was gunned down by terrorists inside the Tehsil office in Chadoora town in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. He had got the job of a clerk under the special employment package for migrants in 2010-11.
April 13, 2022 – Terrorists in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir fired upon a civilian named Satish Kumar Singh Rajput. He was immediately shifted to the hospital for treatment where he succumbed to his injuries. He was a driver by profession and was a resident of Kakran in Kulgam.
Following this incident, terror organization Lashkar-e-Islam has issued a warning to Kashmiri Hindus to ‘leave Kashmir or get killed’ in a letter named ‘Letter to kafirs.’
April 4, 2022 – Bal Krishan Bhat (39), who is from the Kashmiri Pandit community, was killed by suspected militants near his home in Choutigam Shopian.
October 17, 2021 – A gol-gappa hawker from Bihar, Arbind Kumar Sah, was shot dead by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir at point-blank range.
October 7, 2021 – Supinder Kour, a Sikh school principal, and Deepak Chand, a Kashmiri Pandit teacher, inside the government school in the city of Srinagar were killed.
October 5, 2021 – Terrorists shot dead Makhan Lal Bindroo, Kashmiri Pandit owner of the famous Bindroo Medical in Iqbal Park, Srinagar. The murder of Bindroo, one among four civilians killed that say, had shocked the Kashmiri community as he was the last address for patients who couldn’t find medicines elsewhere.
Virender Paswan, from Bihar and the sole earning member of his family, was also killed. He sold chaat at a thela in downtown Srinagar.
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