Srinagar: A day after 42-year-old Kashmiri Pandit was shot dead in a targeted attack, the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS) has appealed to the Prime Minister to replace J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha immediately.
Kashmiri Pandit Sanjay Sharma, working as a security guard at a bank was shot dead by militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Sunday morning. Sanjay is the fourth Kashmiri Pandit to be killed in the Valley since October 2021.
KPSS, an organisation of Kashmiri Pandits who stayed back in the Valley during the militancy, said the government of India should “accept the failure” of the current Lt Governor to address the issue of security of Kashmiri Pandits.
“KPSS, take strong note of the situation in Kashmir Valley and remind Hon’ble Prime Minister and Hon’ble Home Minister to intervene on a high level and accept the failure of the current Lt. Governor to address the issue of security of the religious minorities in Kashmir Valley particularly Non-Migrant Kashmiri Pandits who have become fodder in between Government, Terrorists and Migrant Kashmiri Pandits living luxurious lives outside Kashmir Valley,” the president of KPSS Sanjay K Tickoo said in a statement.
“KPSS most humbly with folded hands request Hon’ble Prime Minister and Hon’ble Home Minister to rest their personal agendas and self-conceit and take the issue seriously and replace the current Lt. Governor immediately for letting the Kashmiri Pandits to be killed by the militants for some vested agenda and vendetta to maglin the ruling political party at the national and international level,” Tickoo said.
The KPSS president asked the government of India to issue necessary directions to initiate a “brutal operation” against the militants and their aides to safeguard the lives of the innocent Kashmiri Pandits and other religious minorities living in Kashmir Valley.
“These militants want war and the Government of India should consider this challenge with open heart and brutal strategies and should stop experimenting with the situation in Kashmir and endangering the lives of Kashmiri Pandits and other religious minorities..,” he said. “.. everything has an expiry date so is of our patience which is put on test (by) the radical Kashmiri population by killing Kashmiri Pandits and other religious minorities in Kashmir Valley and the inaction of Government of India to control the same and by concealing the facts to the world that since August 2019, the condition of Kashmir has become bad to worst when it comes to the livelihood and survival of Kashmiri Pandits and Hindus living in Kashmir Valley.”
Tickoo said since 1990, the dark times for Kashmiri Pandits continue in Kashmir and the world has turned deaf and blind on this issue which involves lives and security of the innocent religious minorities living in Kashmir.
“Islamic countries and scholars repeatedly claim that terror doesn’t have a religion, but they need to see in Kashmir that here it not only has a religion but a face too,” the KPSS president said.
Following the Sunday killing, the KPSS had called for a protest shutdown on Monday.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Sunday condemned the terror attack and said the administration has given a free hand to the security forces to deal with the terrorists.
