In Jammu, stone laid for memorial to Kashmiri Pandits slain by militants

Jammu, September 15

A group of Kashmiri Pandits laid the foundation stone of a memorial dedicated to its community members, who were killed by militants in Jammu and Kashmir over the past three decades, on the banks of the Tawi river here.

Coming up on the lines of the Army’s war memorial, the “martyrs’ memorial” is said to be the biggest civilian memorial in Jammu, they said.

“As the displaced community marks 31 years since the forcible exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from the Valley due to emergence of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, the Mata Badrakali Trust has laid the foundation for the first-ever memorial for those KPs, who were killed by terrorists since 1990,” Mata Bhadrakali Asthapan Trust president Dilip Pandita told mediapersons here.

He said work on the project has been started with the laying of the foundation stone on Tuesday.

The structure will be crowned with a big dome while marble plates with names and dates of those who died will be inscribed on them. It is coming up on three acres at Thalwal on the banks of the Tawi river, project in-charge Raj Kumar said.

“Under the dome, there will be big marble walls on which the names of members of the community, who died since the first India-Pakistan war in 1947 along with those killed due to terrorism since 1990,” he said. — PTI