Samba: Grief, anger at terror victim schoolteacher's funeral, mourners block road

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, June 1

At the cremation of Dalit schoolteacher Rajni Bala (36), who was killed by terrorists in the Valley a day before, BJP leaders had to face anger of local residents in Samba today. BJP’s J&K chief Ravinder Raina and MP Jugal Kishore were left red-faced when locals raised slogans, like jhute ashvasan dena band karo (stop giving false assurances) and Lieutenant Governor prashasan haye haye (thumbs down to the administration). Party leaders had faced similar situation during the cremation of Rahul Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit killed by ultras in Kashmir last month.

Emotions ran high as the funeral procession began from Rajni’s home in Nanak Chak village of Samba in the morning. A large number of people, including officials of the district administration, had turned up.

After the cremation, locals blocked the Jammu-Srinagar national highway. They accused the government of failing to protect the minorities in the Valley.

Ravinder Raina, while talking to mediapersons, said it was a conspiracy of Pakistan-backed terrorists to create fear among Kashmiri Pandits and Dogra community members from Jammu, working in the Valley, to force them out of Kashmir.

The protesters said other Hindu employees should be brought back from Kashmir. Deputy Commissioner Anuradha Gupta tried to pacify the protesters, assuring that she would to take up the matter with higher authorities at the earliest, but to no avail.

The protesters also demanded dismissal of senior education officials of Kulgam district, accusing them of delaying the request of Rajni’s family for her transfer to some safe place.

Civilian shot at in Shopian

• Militants opened fired at a civilian in Rakh-e-Chidren village of Shopian, leaving him injured on Wednesday.
• The 25-year-old victim, Farooq Ahmad, sustained a bullet injury in his leg. His condition is said to be stable.

Security must be ensured for Pandits, says Arvind Kejriwal