BJP SEEKS MORE SECURITY AMID RISE IN ATTACKS ON WORKERS IN VALLEY

SRINAGAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday sought security cover for grassroots representatives and workers here after two party leaders were shot dead by terrorists in a week, triggering panic among its members in the region. Acknowledging that the attacks created a sense of fear among party workers, BJP state spokesperson Altaf Thakur said, “Their lives have been reduced to changing their residences to dodge militant attacks in the absence of security.”

Other party leaders added that many BJP members were holed up in secure locations, unable to visit their hometowns or villages, where they are likely to face hostile local crowds that see the BJP as the main catalyst for the controversial scrapping of the region’s special status and statehood two years ago. On Tuesday, Javeed Ahmad Dar, the party’s incharge of Homeshalibugh assembly constituency, was shot dead by terrorists outside his residence. This was the second killing of a BJP leader in south Kashmir and the third attack on a party functionary in the Union territory in the last one week.

According to Thakur, the party has 530,000 members in J&K but only 200 of them have security.

He added that at least 500 of those working at the district level as well as in Srinagar were provided safer accommodation by the government.

Another BJP worker, who did not wish to be named, said the government had offered him and his family a secured accommodation of a single room to be shared with another BJP worker. “This has become a pattern across Kashmir,” he said.

Sajjad Raina, the party’s Pulwama district president, said he was waiting for a bulletproof vehicle to move around safely. “It has been months that I have sought it. I am hardly able to visit my home town.” “They can target anyone from our family. Neither do I nor do any of the BJP workers have any security for our families,” he added.