Kashmiri Pandit families flee Shopian village following ‘terrorist attacks’ on community members!

Ten Kashmiri Pandit families have fled their hamlet in the Shopian region of south Kashmir out of fear and arrived in Jammu as a result of recent targeted executions by militants. The Pandits who stayed in Kashmir during the most terrible time of terrorism in the 1990s and did not leave their homes, according to the people of Choudharygund, have developed a dread psychosis as a result of the recent terrorist strikes.

Terrorists shot and killed Kashmiri Pandit Puran Krishan Bhat outside his ancestral home in Choudharygund hamlet of Shopian district on October 15. Monish Kumar and Ram Sagar were slain on October 18 in a grenade attack by terrorists while they slept in their rented home in Shopian. A member of Choudharygund hamlet who recently received a death threat told PTI, ‘Ten families comprising 35 to 40 Kashmiri Pandits have relocated out of our village due to the fear psychosis’. He claimed it was now completely deserted.

‘We cannot survive in the Kashmir valley because of the current circumstances. Due to the killings, we constantly live in fear. For us, there is no security’, said a different peasant. The residents claimed that despite their repeated requests for security, a police post was established outside of their community. They claimed to have left everything in their homes, even the most recent apple crop. Those who have arrived in Jammu are lodging with family members.

On October 15, a Kashmiri Pandit was shot and killed in the Choudhry Gund neighbourhood of South Kashmir’s Shopian district. The injured person, identified as Puran Krishan Bhat of Choudry Gund, was transported right away to an area hospital in critical condition. He did, however, pass away from his wounds.

There were protests and rallies against the deliberate assassination of Kashmiri Pandit Puran Krishan Bhat throughout the valley. Along with the migrant Kashmiri Pandit workers, a sizable number of locals, including members of civil society, participated in these rallies and called for harsh punishment for the murderers.