Conflict

Some killings will not deter us, can’t allow ethnic cleansing: Admin on target killings in Kashmir

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Protest in Srinagar against the killing of a migrant teacher who was shot dead in Kulgam district of south Kashmir on May 31, 2022. [FPK Photo/ Mukhtar Zahoor]

New Delhi: The targeted killings of Hindus and migrant workers by militants in Jammu and Kashmir “will not deter” the administration from its job in JK, NDTV reported quoting a senior official in the administration as saying.

“Targeted killings show the level of desperation. Our system will take care of this. This spate of killing will stop. It happened in October last year too,” the report quoted the official source as saying.

In the last 18 months, JK has witnessed 55 civilian killings with 35 and 20 among them gunned down in 2021 and till 2nd June of this year respectively.

20 targeted killings took place in JK this year till 02 June which is almost double the killings that were recorded in the corresponding period in 2021.

“Tourists can be killed if they are targeting non-locals. Anybody can be under attack. They will target Muslims too,” the official was quoted further saying.

Rejecting calls by Kashmiri Pandits to lift lockdowns on their settlements and allow them to move out of Kashmir, he said, “We will not transfer Kashmiri Pandits to Jammu. We can’t be part of any ethnic cleansing. We believe in a multicultural society. We will move Kashmiri Pandits who are working in safer locations.”

Suggesting that the administration was keen things running as they are, he said, “Elections will happen whenever the Election Commission will decide. There is a democratic system… some killing here and there will not deter us.”

“There is no evidence of Taliban [being behind these attacks]. This is not jihad. This is done by some militants. Pakistan is behind all these attacks. There is an attempt to create chaos,” NDTV quoted the official source as saying.

“We don’t want a small group of people who are trying to create a narrative that only they can run the state and get back to the old system,” he added, in an apparent reference to local parties in Jammu and Kashmir who have strongly criticised the government over the killings.

In the backdrop of the recent target attacks in the valley, the Kashmiri Pandits have been protesting for their relocation after the killing of a Rahul Bhat by militants in broad daylight in office premises. The protests further intensified after a teacher Rajini Bala was killed in a school in south Kashmir’s Kulgam.

As the situation turned grim in the valley with the spurt in the attack on civilians and non-locals, a meeting was conducted in New Delhi between Home Minister Amit Shah, National Security Advisor Ajit and RAW Chief Samant Goel.

Meanwhile, a meeting is underway at North Block, New Delhi between Home Minister of India Amit Shah, NSA Doval, RAW Chief, Army Chief General Manoj Pandey, Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, LG Manoj Sinha, DG CRPF Kuldeep Singh, BSF Chief Pankaj Singh, J&K Chief Dilbag Singh and other top officials.

 

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