Kashmiri Pandit's killing triggers protest outside Hurriyat office

Srinagar, October 17

A group of people, including social activists, staged a protest outside the Hurriyat Conference office here on Monday against the killing of Kashmiri Pandit Puran Krishan Bhat by terrorists last week, officials said.

The protesters assembled outside the office of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat at Rajbagh here and held a protest. They held the Hurriyat responsible for the bloodshed in the Valley. The protesters daubed “India” on the main gate of the Hurriyat’s central building and brought down the signboard of the separatist amalgam, the officials said. The gate was locked.

The protesters included social activists, municipal corporators and Kashmiri Pandits, the officials added.

One of the protesters said the Hurriyat office would be closed down soon and an orphanage would be run from the building. Another protester, a Kashmiri Pandit, said the people of Kashmir had realised that they wanted peace and not bloodshed.

Bhat was gunned down by terrorists on Saturday outside his ancestral house in Shopian. In a statement, the Hurriyat “denounced the hooliganism” demonstrated outside its office “by sponsored goons with police as bystanders”. “It is a petty attempt at diverting attention from the authorities’ failure to safeguard the lives of Kashmiri Pandits,” the separatist amalgam said. — PTI

Signboard removed

• The protesters daubed ‘India’ on main gate of the Hurriyat Conference’s central building
• Blaming the separatist amalgam for bloodshed in the Valley, they brought down its signboard

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