Amid a charged atmosphere, the mortal remains of the slain government teacher Rajni Bala,36, were cremated at her native village Nankechak in Samba district on Wednesday.
A government schoolteacher, Rajni Bala, was killed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam district. Slogans of “Rajni Bala amar rahe, amar rahe” rent the air as her husband, Raj Kumar, lit the pyre amid a sea of mourners.
An angry mob also blocked the Jammu-Kathua highway at Samba for nearly half an hour. However, they were pacified by senior officials of the administration and police.
At her home in Nanke Chak village, Bala’s parents and in-laws were inconsolable. Kumar, also a government school teacher, said after the targeted killings of Hindus in the Valley, he and his wife had repeatedly requested the administration to transfer her to a safer workplace, but their pleas were not heeded in time.
Their transfer orders came on Monday night and Tuesday was supposed to be Bala’s last day at the school in Gopalpora, he said. “I had given an application to the chief education officer of Kulgam. We told him that the school is not safe for my wife, but he did not do anything,” Kumar alleged.
{{/usCountry}}Their transfer orders came on Monday night and Tuesday was supposed to be Bala’s last day at the school in Gopalpora, he said. “I had given an application to the chief education officer of Kulgam. We told him that the school is not safe for my wife, but he did not do anything,” Kumar alleged.
{{/usCountry}}Kumar said Hindus are soft targets in Kashmir and the administration should relocate all of them to safer places.
Those who joined Bala’s funeral also demanded protection for Hindu employees serving in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley. Villagers demanded that a school in Nanke Chak be named after Bala.
“We demand that the school in the village be named after Rajni Bala and the transfer policy be reviewed to transfer Hindus out of Kashmir. Kashmir is not a safe place for Hindu employees,” said a villager Narinder Kumar.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina, who also attended Bala’s last rites, said her death would be avenged by ensuring the burial of her killers.
Raina, however, had to face the anger of the people, who said that the administration in the UT and BJP at the Centre have failed to protect the minorities in Kashmir. Besides her husband, Bala is survived by her 13-year-old daughter.
Bala’s was the second killing of a Kashmiri Pandit in the Valley in May. On May 12, Rahul Bhat was shot dead inside the tehsildar’s office in Chadoora tehsil of Budgam district.
It was also the seventh targeted killing in Kashmir in May. While three of the victims were off-duty policemen, four were civilians.