Panchayat members want NIA to investigate spate of killings

Jammu, March 12

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The All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) on Saturday demanded a probe by the premier National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the killing of three local elected representatives by terrorists in the Valley this month.

Security reviewed

• After a sarpanch’s murder by militants, the police on Saturday reviewed Kulgam’s security.
• IG Vijay Kumar, along with DIGs of the police and the CRPF in Anantnag, met the DC, SSP, CRPF COs and others.
• The focus is to generate input to enhance anti-militancy operations, a police statement said. IANS

Independent sarpanch Shabir Ahmad Mir was shot dead by militants near his residence in Adoura in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Friday. Another independent sarpanch, Sameer Bhat, was shot on the outskirts of Srinagar on March 9, while independent panchayat member Mohammad Yaqub Dar was killed in Kulgam on March 2.

AJKPC president Anil Sharma said over two dozen members of panchayati raj institutions (PRI), including panch, sarpanch and block development council chairpersons, had been killed in terrorist attacks between 2011 and 2022. “It is unfortunate that till date not even a single terrorist responsible for these killings has been arrested or neutralised. The family members of the elected PRI members are worried and even compelling the elected members to resign from the post fearing risk to their lives,” he said.

Sharma requested the Central Government to order a probe by the National Investigation Agency into such killings and bring the culprits to book. He also demanded immediate release of Rs 25 lakh as ex gratia for the families of those killed and a government job for kin. The AJKPC is an organisation of elected panchayat representatives.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party’s national general secretary and in-charge of party affairs in J&K Tarun Chugh on Saturday condemned the killing of a sarpanch in Kulgam. Chugh termed the incident highly condemnable and deplorable and demanded that the perpetrators of this heinous act should be brought to justice.

“Such mindless attacks shall achieve nothing except for more miseries to the common people,” he said in a statement. The BJP leader said there was no justification to kill an innocent person and violence in all its manifestation has no place in any civilised society.

The killings have drawn condemnation from Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and political leaders and parties. Sinha had yesterday tweeted that the security forces were determined to eliminate the terror ecosystem and the administration stood in solidarity with the family members. —