Targeted killing sparks fresh wave of fear among Kashmiri Pandits

There are nearly 4,000 migrant Pandit employees, recruited under the Prime Minister’s special rehabilitation package in the Valley

The latest targeted killing of a Kashmir Pandit by militants in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Tuesday has sparked a fresh wave of fears among the minority community members in the Kashmiri Valley, who feel increasingly scared and insecure.

Sunil Kumar Nath, 45, and his brother Pintoo Kumar, 43, were shot at by motor-cycle borne militants when they were working in their orchard in Chotigam village of Shopian. While Nath died on the spot, Kumar is in hospital with critical bullet wounds.

On April 4 this year, another Pandit namely Sonu Kumar was shot at and injured when he was at his shop in the same village. However, Sonu survived and since then he has only visited his village today after the attack on their neighbours.

Three Pandits families comprising around 16 family members are living in the village, who didn’t migrate in 1990 when most of the community fled from Kashmir after attacks by the militants.

Read | Police arrest kin of accused in Kashmiri Pandit killing

Anil Kumar, brother of Sonu alleged that after the attack on his brother, he went to several officers, including Divisional commissioner, P K Pole, to provide them security. However, he said, the divisional commissioner told him to “live in your village and die there and nothing lies in my hands and I can’t do anything for you.”

When Pole visited Chotigam on Tuesday to express condolences with the victim's family, he had to face the wrath of the relatives of the slain, who accused him of leaving the community to die at the hands of the militants. A video of the incident has gone viral on social media.

In May this year when Rahul Bhat, a Pandit employee was killed in a similar attack in Chadoora area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district, hundreds of community members fled from the Valley.

The growing fear among Pandits is palpable. There are nearly 4,000 migrant Pandit employees, recruited under the Prime Minister’s special rehabilitation package, and hundreds of the Hindu employees from Jammu recruited under the Schedule Caste (SC) quota and posted in the Valley.

“We don’t want to get killed one-by-one. The targeted killings are not stopping and after every such incident, the government gives us assurances of security which have proven false again and again,” said Sanjay, a Pandit, who didn’t migrate in 1990.

“In 1990, enemy (militants) were visible, but now everything is shadowed. We can’t face the invisible enemy anymore,” he said while referring to ‘hybrid militants’, who are carrying targeted killings.

The Kashmiri Pandit Sangarash Samiti (KPSS), an organisation that represents the Pandit families that decided not to migrate in the 1990s, has already called for mass migration of the community.

“With another deadly attack on Kashmiri Pandits, the terrorists have made it clear they are going to kill all the Pandits in the Valley. Irony is that local OGWs (over ground workers) work with them (militants) to kill their neighbours,” the KPSS said in a statement after the latest attack.