J&K’s main regional parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and National Conference (NC), have blamed the Centre for the rise in targeted killings in the Valley and said “tourism was not a sign of normalcy”.
Former Chief Minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said she was prevented by the police from visiting Budgam “to express my solidarity with Kashmiri Pandits protesting against the Government of India’s failure to protect them”.
“I have been put under house arrest, because the fact that Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits empathise with each other’s pain doesn’t fit into their [the Centre’s] vicious communal narrative,” Ms. Mufti said.
In a video message uploaded on social media, she appealed to the people of J&K to stand together in these turbulent times so that the Centre does not use this tragic incident to further malign Muslims across the country.
“The situation is going from bad to worse. We need to stand by all the members of minority community. In 1947, even Gandhi saw a ray of hope in J&K’s brotherhood. I appeal to mosque priests to spread a message of brotherhood in their Friday sermons,” she said.
Condemning the killing of the Pandit employee and a policeman in the past 24 hours, NC vice-president Omar Abdullah said, “Tourism is not normalcy, it’s a barometer of economic activity. Normalcy is the absence of fear, the absence of terror, the inability of militants to strike at will, the presence of democratic rule, and by any yardstick you choose to use Kashmir is far from normal today.”
He also condemned police action against protesting Pandits in Budgam. “It’s shameful that legitimate and justified protests are met with a heavy-handed response. This is not new for the people of Kashmir, because when all the administration has is a hammer, every problem resembles a nail. If the L-G’s government can’t protect KPs [Kashmiri Pandits], they have a right to protest,” Mr. Abdullah said.
