BJP demands security for their party workers in Kashmir

A day after the killing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Javed Ahmad Dar by militants in Kulgam district of South Kashmir, the BJP said it is the responsibility and duty of the police to provide security and accommodation to the BJP workers across Kashmir Valley.

The BJP said they had informed the police to provide Dar and others security and accommodation after militants killed two BJP leaders from Kulgam on August 9.

On August 10, Thakur says, Kulgam district president of the BJP Abid Hussain Khan had given a list of the 26 BJP leaders to the SSP and the DC of the district conveying to him that they are in need of security and accommodation.

On August 9, militants entered into the rented accommodation of the BJP leader Ghulam Rasool Dar (Sarpanch) of Redwani Kulgam at Lal Chowk Anantnag and fired indiscriminately killing both Dar and his wife Jawahira, who was BJP panch of her area.

BJP district president Kulgam Abid Hussain Khan told Outlook a day after the killings he wrote a letter to the deputy commissioner Kulgam and the SSP Kulgam seeking security and accommodation for 26 BJP leaders and workers.

He said among the list few were given safe accommodation but the district president of the constituency Javed Ahmad Dar and others were sadly ignored. He said militants killed nine BJP workers and leaders of the BJP in the district in the past year.

"That makes the area very sensitive and we urge the government to be sensitive towards the issue," he said. He said in the Kulgam district at present there are 1270 BJP workers and nearly 600 are prominent who require accommodation and security given the militant attacks. He said he will be providing the list of all these people to the police and civil administration.

"The BJP graph is increasing in the district and that is the reason terrorists are after us. We need security and accommodation. My own vehicle was burnt down," he said.

Thakur says at least 23 BJP workers have been killed in different militant attacks in Jammu and Kashmir in the past two years.

"Alone in Kulgam in the past year, nine killings of BJP leaders and workers have been reported. It is a matter of serious concern. And it is high time for the police to book the culprits and at the same time provide safe and secure accommodation to the BJP workers and activists in south Kashmir. It is high time that measures need to be taken to prevent attacks on BJP leaders," Thakur said.