Jammu and Kashmir: On the morning of June 2, a gunman wearing a mask walked into a bank in South Kashmir and shot dead its manager – 29-year-old Vijay Kumar, originally from Rajasthan. Later that evening, militants shot at two labourers at a brick kiln in Central Kashmir. One of them, Dilkhush Kumar from Bihar, later died of his injuries. Kashmir has now seen 19 targeted killings this year. Thirteen of those killed belonged to the majority Kashmiri Muslim community. Many of them were policemen or panchayat leaders, killed because they worked for the administration. Assassinations such as these are not new to the Valley. Six of those who died were Hindus – migrant workers as well as members of local communities. These killings represent a trend that has gathered pace over the last year: of non-Muslim minorities being targeted in Kashmir. With the latest killings, a growing panic in the Valley has reached crisis point. For weeks, Kashmiri Pandits quartered in migrant camps in the Valley had sat in protest, demanding the government transfer them to Jammu. Now, some are trying to leave the Valley on their own.
Many of them belong to Pandit families forced to flee the Valley in the 1990s, as the community was targeted by militant groups. They had returned to highly securitised migrant camps and government jobs offered under a rehabilitation scheme announced by the Centre in 2008. That scheme seems to be unravelling. After almost every targeted killing, security forces have claimed to have gunned down the militants responsible. This week, the Jammu and Kashmir administration promised to move Kashmiri Pandits to more secure locations by June 6. In Delhi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah met national security advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday, and Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha as well as the army chief on Friday, to take stock of the security situation.
But focusing on security alone may not be enough to resolve the situation. As the death toll mounts, politicians who have engaged with Kashmir as well as former army officials who have served in the Valley say the Centre needs to rethink its overall Kashmir policy. “There’s no state government and there’s nobody else who will share the blame,” said Yashwant Sinha, who was finance minister and external affairs minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, and who joined the Trinamool Congress last year. “The government of India is totally, 100% responsible for what’s happening today in Kashmir.”
