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| Village heads on target of guns, 16 killed since 2011 | | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Dec 20: With Panchayat members blaming the government for killing village heads in Kashmir, the toll after another Sarpnach killed in North Kashmir's Sopore town by unknown gunmen reached to sixteen on Saturday.
After the formation of much glorified Panchayati Raj Act in India in 2011, 16 village heads have been killed so far with 3 during Parliamentary elections and 4 during ongoing Assembly elections in Kashmir.
The official data available to 'Early Times' reveals that the total of sixteen Panchs and Sarpanchs were killed by unknown gunmen since Panchayati elections conducted in April 2011 in the state including 7 since January till date.
Pertinently, a Sarpanch was shot dead by suspected militants in Sopore district of North Kashmir when the final phase of polling is underway in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the police sources, "The Sarpanch named Ghulam Mohammad Bhat was killed in Bomai area of Sopore district after two militants on a bike fired at him in a market place."
The incident happened at the time of polling for the fifth and final phase of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Ghulam Hassan Panzoo Spokesman, Jammu and Kashmir Pancahayati Conference (JKPC), threatened mass resignation of Panchs and Sarpnachs in case the next government also failed to fulfill their demands.
"We are waiting for the formation of next government, we will see if our concerns were taken seriously by the next successive regime we will work or else we will publicly apologize for taking part in Panchayat elections and tender resignations unanimously," he threatened.
"We have decided to hold a massive protest on December 26 at Press Enclave in Srinagar with the aim to make this quiescent government accountable as to why innocent village heads are being killed and why not the government succeeded to make any worthwhile headway to nab the assailants who silenced our sixteen colleagues forever," Panzoo told 'Early Times'.
Taking pot shots at the government for failing to protect the elected local representatives, he said "I must not hesitate to say that all the Panchs and Sarpnachs were killed by the government for its petty political gains.
It is obvious in case this was handiwork of militants then they would have claimed the responsibility like Tehreek-e-Taliban terrorist outfit owned after slaughtering 133 children in Peshawar Pakistan,"
Panzoo claimed despite repeated assurances by the government to take adequate measures vis-à-vis security and other correlated issues of local village heads it miserably failed to adopt anything concrete on ground.
"We held 72 hour hunger strike In Jantar Mantar, we also sat on a peaceful sit-in at Press Club Jammu and held several protests in Srinagar in favor of our demands which includes adequate security to all Panchs and Sarpanchs and implementation of SRO 43 for victim families but ironically this government except for hollow promises did nothing in our favor," added Panzoo. |
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