Kashmiri Pandits in US condemn killing of Sarpanch in Valley

An organisation representing Kashmiri Pandits in the US has condemned the targeted killing of a Pandit Sarpanch who was shot dead by militants in Anantnag district of the Valley. Ajay Pandita (Bharti), the Sarpanch of the Larkipora area in Anantnag district and a member of the Congress party, was shot dead by militants in his native village on Monday.

The targeted killing of Pandita proves that the ethnic cleansing of the minority Kashmiri Hindu community in the Valley continues unabated, Indo-American Kashmir Forum (IAKF) said on Monday. His gruesome, public murder is a reminder of the havoc brought upon the entire Kashmiri Hindu community driven from their homeland in the Kashmir Valley over the past few centuries, most recently beginning in 1990, the organisation said in a statement,

Denouncing the local government's lackadaisical approach to the security needs of Pandita, as well as other lower-tier public officials, the IAKF demanded that the Kashmiri Hindus who still live in the valley be given extra police protection until peace is restored in the Valley.

In its statement, the IAKF also condemned Pakistan, and its supporters within the Kashmir Valley, for promoting, funding, aiding and harbouring global terror organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), and The Resistance Front (TRF).

"The Resistance Front (TRF), which has taken responsibility for Pandita's brutal murder, is merely a new, consolidated name for Islamic terrorists from the three groups already active in Kashmir - HM, LeT and JeM," IAKF said.