Police has been deployed in the Chotigam village of Shopian district to protect the two remaining Kashmiri Pandit families after one of them was attacked on Monday, 4th of April 2022. When most Hindu families in the village left Kashmir during the ethnic cleansing of the 90s, the two families had decided to stay back in the valley.
As per reports, one of those remaining Hindus, Anil Kumar Bhat, was sitting outside his medical shop when he saw two youths drive up on a motorcycle and one of them got off and entered the shop. Anil thought they had come to buy some medicines but soon after, his brother Bal Krishan Bhat came out screaming having been shot at by the intruder.
A critical Bal Krishan Bhat was rushed to the Army’s 92 Base hospital in Srinagar where he is reported to be stable.
The Bhat family used to live under the protection of Police in their village till 2016, however, after Burhan Wani was killed, these small Police posts became vulnerable to terror attacks, and were hence withdrawn. After this attack, a team of Jammu & Kashmir Police returned to the village to guard the 2 Hindu families.
The police officials have said that they are working on some leads, and have provided security cover to the 2 families in the meanwhile.
A protest was also held in Jammu against these targeted attacks against the few remaining Kashmiri Hindus and Bihari migrants in the Union Territory. Led by the Muthi Migrant camp president Anil Bhan, a rally was taken out to protest against the selective attacks on the Hindus in Kashmir.
The recently released film ‘The Kashmir Files‘ has put a spotlight on the atrocities against Kashmiri Hindus, but looks like it will take a long time for things to change on the ground.
