Raj Kumar, husband of slain teacher Rajni Bala, on Tuesday evening claimed that the Jammu and Kashmir government didn’t act upon their request to transfer the couple to a “safer” school.
Kumar, also a government schoolteacher, said, “I had requested the chief education officer at least four times to transfer us to a safer workplace as my wife’s school was located at a remote area. Yesterday too, we had gone to the education director’s office and submitted an application with a request to post us together in one school.”
“Though the order was issued last evening, had they (authorities) heard us in time, it (killing) would not have happened,” he added.
“My wife had to walk a good distance to reach the school. This morning, I dropped my wife near her school and rushed to work. I had just marked my attendance in my school when my headmaster got a phone call (about the incident),” said Kumar.
“The headmaster, however, didn’t disclose anything to me and said that her daughter was sick and therefore asked me to come along immediately. Two to three other teachers also accompanied me in the car to the hospital where I came to know that my wife had been shot,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“The headmaster, however, didn’t disclose anything to me and said that her daughter was sick and therefore asked me to come along immediately. Two to three other teachers also accompanied me in the car to the hospital where I came to know that my wife had been shot,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“She was shot at near her school. I occasionally used to drop her to the school. Mostly, she used to leave for her school in an auto-rickshaw. Naturally, the attackers must have conducted a recce,” he responded to a query.
Kumar said they had never received any threat and no one told them that such a thing would ever happen to them.
The couple lived in a rented accommodation with their minor daughter.
Don’t we have right to live in Kashmir, ask teacher’s kin
Wails and shrills of the family members, relatives and friends of Rajni Bala shattered the eerie silence as her mortal remains reached the house of her in-laws at Nankechak village in Supwal area of Samba on Tuesday evening.
“We are in a state of shock. Just two months ago, she had come home and told us that they lived in an atmosphere of fear because of the increased attacks on non-Muslims,” said Surinder Kumar, Rajni’s brother-in-law.
“My sister-in-law, my brother and their little daughter lived together…what could be more shameful for the government? In fact, where is the government? There is no guarantee to life in Kashmir. A common man is getting killed everyday and the government only does lip service. Do minorities even have a right to life in Kashmir?” he questioned.
Rajni’s uncle Raj Kumar said, “We had asked them many times to come back to Jammu. Every day, there is a fresh killing. Hindus are being killed daily there. What can we say...we have lost everything.”
Senior BJP leader Surjeet Singh Salathia, who had gone to express his condolences, said, “Targeted killings are on the rise in Kashmir because militants are desperate and militancy is in its last leg.”
“We are confident that Rajni’s killers will not be spared. But yes, the life lost cannot be brought back. We appeal LG to provide security to minorities in Valley. This is a new design of the terrorists to execute targeted killings but they (terrorists) will soon meet their fate,” said the former minister.