Kashmiri Pandit killed by militants in his office
In the latest incident of target killing, a government official belonging to minority Kashmiri Pandit (Brahmin Hindu) community fell to the gunmen’s bullets in Chadoora area outside capital Srinagar on Thursday evening. The authorities identified the victim as Rahul Bhat and blamed his murder on separatist militants.
The police sources said that 35-year-old Bhat was targeted by two pistol-borne men inside the tehsil office premises at Chadoora where he worked as a clerk. He was rushed to Srinagar’s governmentrun Sri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital where he succumbed to the injuries.
Bhat, originally a resident of Sangrampora village of Kashmir Valley’s central district of Budgam, lived at a Migrant Transit Camp located at Sheikhapora
on the outskirts of Srinagar, the sources said, adding that he had been appointed in the J&K revenue department in the first batch of the Prime Minister’s job package for displaced Kashmiri Pandits in 2010.
Soon after the incident, the J&K police along with the Army and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) launched a search operation in the area to capture the assailants alive or dead.
On hearing about the gory incident, Kashmiri Pandits putting up at another migrants’ camp at Vessu in southern
Kulgam district staged a protest, demanding adequate security to the members of the minority community and exemplary punishment for those involved in the recent spate of target killings and other crimes. They also briefly locked the Srinagar-Jammu highway (NH44) to vent their anger, the witnesses said.
Protests by Kashmiri Pandits were held at several places in Kashmir Valley and Jammu region against Bhat’s murder. They also lit candles in memory of and to pay respects the victim.
Meanwhile, government employees belonging to the Kashmiri Pandit community have threatened mass resignations if their security cover is not strengthened further.
Inspector general of police Vijay Kumar visited the Sheikhapora migrant colony to expresses solidarity with the bereaved.