Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Srinagar, August 05: Defying militant threats, they contested the Panchayat polls during November-December 2018 with an assurance by the government that Panchayat members will be provided security, but they continue to live under fear in Kashmir as there has been no end to killings.
In the last three weeks, several Pnaches have been killed while scores of them have resigned.
Gripped under constant fear, hundreds of Panches and Sarpanches were put up in Srinagar hotels by the government.
One of the Panch told news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS) that Political affiliations of elected panchayat members have made them more vulnerable to militant attacks, notwithstanding Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) considered as “community institutions”.
He said so far, 20 Panchayat members have been gunned down by armed militants in J&K since 2011.
On Thursday, a BJP-affiliated sarpanch was shot dead in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district. This was the second attack in less than 36 hours on a BJP panchayat member in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
Mainstream political leaders are well-secured, but panchayat members are easy targets of militants, the Panch said wishing anonymity.
On August 4, Arif Ahmad, a panchayat member of the BJP, was critically injured when militants fired at him near his house at Akhran in Qazigund.
“Political parties need to be blamed for repeated attacks on sarpanches and panches as they affiliated them for their own petty interests while risking their lives.
The panchayat elections were held on a non-party basis, both in 2011 and 2018, but some political parties began an exercise to affiliate panchayat members with it to make political gains.
An elected panchayat member from south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, who declined to be identified, said, “Militants have been targeting sarpanches and panches who have affiliation with a particular political party. If we keenly observe the trend of attacks, these have become more frequent since political parties started affiliating panchayat members.”
On July 8, Congress-affiliated sarpanch Ajay Pandita Bharti was gunned down by militants in Anantnag. Earlier, sarpanches, having affiliation with political parties, were attacked in Kashmir.(KINS)
