Bank guard cremated in Pulwama

PTI

Samaan Lateef

Srinagar, February 27

A day after he was shot dead by terrorists, Kashmiri Pandit bank guard Sanjay Sharma was cremated in his native village in Pulwama district on Monday with his Muslim neighbours lending a helping hand to the grief-stricken family.

Killers will be brought to justice: L-G

It is an extremely unfortunate incident. No words are enough to condemn the killing. Whoever has carried out the act, our security forces will take care of them. Manoj Sinha, L-G, J&K

The killing has drawn the whole Achen village in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district into collective mourning.

The silence in the grief-stricken village is occasionally broken by the shrieks of wailing women mostly from the majority Muslim community.

At Achan, there is a deep sense of loss over Sharma’s killing with shops shut and people consoling themselves and the family of the deceased.

Young men are sitting on shop fronts, discussing Sharma’s killing and what it means to the age-old brotherhood between the two communities.

“Sanjay was like my son. I am heartbroken. How can someone kill an innocent man,” asked Sharma’s neighbour Ghulam Rasool Bhat.

“We don’t know who did this. Muslims built a temple for Hindus here during the peak of militancy. We never heard anyone talking or showing animosity towards the Pandits. There should be a proper investigation,” Bhat said.

The Muslim members of the village had come out publicly to condemn the killings and criticised the assailants, a rare thing to see in Kashmir where fear of the unknown has silenced voices of rationality.

Men and women have gathered outside their two-storey brick house. Sharma was constructing a new house next door. He had gone to buy medicine from the market when terrorists attacked him. (With inputs)

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