Target killings in J&K on the rise, 177 Kashmiri Pandit teachers transferred to safe location

The decision came a day after the conduct of a high-level meeting chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah chaired.

The government has released an order to transfer 177 Kashmiri Pandit teachers posted in Srinagar to safer locations following demands to be relocated. The decision came after witnessing an alarming spike in targeted killings in Kashmir.

The decision came a day after the conduct of a high-level meeting chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah chaired. The meeting was conducted to take stock of the security situation in the restive Union Territory in the wake of a string of attacks targeting the Kashmiri Pandit community and migrants workers.

6,000 employee on protest after Bhat’s killing

Following the death of Rahul Bhat, who was shot dead by terrorists on May 12 in the Chadoora area of Budgam district in central Kashmir, Kashmiri Pandits employed under the prime minister's special package in 2012, have been staging protests threatening mass exodus.

Bhat's killing sparked protests by around 6,000 employees at various places who demanded their relocation outside the Valley. Since then, the targeted terrorist violence in the Valley has only escalated.

According to India Today, a bank employee and a brick kiln labourer were killed in Kashmir while another labourer got injured in two separate incidents on June 2. Since May 1, the bank manager was the eighth and the labourer was the ninth victim of targeted killings in Kashmir.

Targeted killings in Kashmir

On May 31, a woman teacher hailing from the Samba district of the Jammu region was shot dead by terrorists at a school in south Kashmir's Kulgam district. On May 18, terrorists entered a wine shop at Baramulla in North Kashmir and threw a grenade, killing one person from the Jammu region and injuring three others.

Policeman Saifullah Qadri was shot dead outside his residence in Srinagar on May 24 while television artiste Amreen Bhat was gunned down in Budgam two days later.

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