- By Shivam Shandilya
- Fri, 28 Oct 2022 04:07 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
DUE TO continuous targeted attacks on Kashmiri Pandits, at least 11 families have left the Kashmir valley with the intent to shift to Jammu.
The two pandits were killed by terrorists in the last two months, even after the unrest had first begun around 1990. The families were living in Shopian's district, Chaudharygund and Chotigam villages.
The houses of these villages are locked, and the residents nearby say only one Pandit woman is left of the eight families, and she is also moving out.
On October 15, Puran Krishan Singh, a resident of the village, was shot point-blank by militants inside his ancestral village on October 15.The location of the incident was barely 100 metres away from a security camp. This incident prompted the minorities to instantly leave their homes and shift to a safer location outside Kashmir.
"Our community is being singled out and targeted. What is our fault? There is hardly a day when I do not cry about our fate... misfortune. How can we stay in the village? " Kumari told News18, hours after she travelled from Shopian to Jammu. She was the last Hindu to say goodbye to her village.
Hours after Bhat's murder, Kumari said she has little faith in the CRPF, which has been stationed right next to her house to protect the village's minorities. The village, which is roughly six kilometres from the Shopian district headquarters, is made up of about 25 Muslim families and eight Hindu families.
"Not a single member of our community has stayed back in spite of a lot of work in the fields that needed to be completed," she went on. Kumari and her brother own two big orchards in Shopian and transport thousands of apple boxes in a season.
At least six Kashmiri Pandits and numerous non-local labourers, employees, police officers, and elected officials have lost their lives in the recent two years alone as a result of a wave of targeted attacks. In recent months, there have been a few attacks and clashes between police and militants in Shopian in particular. On October 18, two outside labourers were killed in the nearby town of Harmain. A Kashmiri Pandit member was killed in Chottigam hamlet in August, while a local Hindu was hurt months earlier.
Although lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha's led administration has said many militants responsible for these incidents have been killed, the continuous attacks have badly hit the confidence of the minorities in the valley.