BJP seeks more security amid increase in attacks on workers in Valley

Acknowledging that the attacks created a sense of fear among party workers, BJP state spokesperson Altaf Thakur said, “Their lives have been reduced to changing their residences to dodge militant attacks in the absence of security.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday sought security cover for grassroots representatives and workers in Jammu and Kashmir after two party leaders were shot dead by terrorists in a week, triggering panic among its members in the region.

Family members of a BJP worker who was shot dead by terrorists in Kulgam district on Tuesday. (PTI)

Acknowledging that the attacks created a sense of fear among party workers, BJP state spokesperson Altaf Thakur said, “Their lives have been reduced to changing their residences to dodge militant attacks in the absence of security.”

Other party leaders added that many BJP members were holed up in secure locations, unable to visit their hometowns or villages, where they are likely to face hostile local crowds that see the BJP as the main catalyst for the controversial scrapping of the region’s special status and statehood two years ago.

On Tuesday, Javeed Ahmad Dar, the party’s incharge of Homeshalibugh assembly constituency, was shot dead by terrorists outside his residence. This was the second killing of a BJP leader in south Kashmir and the third attack on a party functionary in the Union territory in the last one week.

On August 9, BJP village chief Ghulam Rasool Dar and his wife Jawahira Bano were gunned down by terrorists in their rented accommodation in Anantnag town. Dar was the president of BJP Kisan Morcha of Kulgam district and was also serving as the sarpanch of Redwani village in the district. His wife was a member of the panchayat from the same village.

According to Thakur, the party has 530,000 members in J&K but only 200 of them have security. He added that at least 500 of those working at the district level as well as in Srinagar were provided safer accommodation by the government.

“Our hopes are higher than the Himalayas and stronger than rocks. Despite the attacks, our political activities are going on and will continue,” Thakur said.

In Dar’s case, police maintained that the BJP leader never asked for security. “Even the local BJP leader did not share his name in the list of PPs (protected persons),” a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

Another BJP worker, who did not wish to be named, said the government had offered him and his family a secured accommodation of a single room to be shared with another BJP worker. “This has become a pattern across Kashmir,” he said.

BJP leader Rajesh Pandita, who was killed in Pulwama in June this year, was allotted two personal security officers besides a secured accommodation in Srinagar. Pandita was at a friend’s place without his security guards when he was shot dead by terrorists in the city. A woman was also critically injured in the incident.

Sajjad Raina, the party’s Pulwama district president, said he was waiting for a bulletproof vehicle to move around safely. “It has been months that I have sought it. I am hardly able to visit my home town.”

“Pulwama is most hit by militancy and despite so many attacks on our workers across Kashmir, no one from my team of 60 members has resigned yet,” the BJP leader, who is residing in a secured government accommodation in Pampore near Srinagar, with almost 50 party workers, said.

The Pulwama unit chief also said that it is not just him or his party workers who are under threat. “They can target anyone from our family. Neither do I nor do any of the BJP workers have any security for our families,” he said.

While inspector general of police (Kashmir range) Vijay Kumar did not comment on the provision of safe accommodation for families of BJP workers, he said the allotment of bulletproof vehicles is solely under the purview of director general of police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh.

HT tried to reach out to the DGP but could not get a response immediately.

BJP leaders claimed that at least 22 of workers have been killed in the Valley in various terrorist attacks ever since the Centre revoked Jammu & Kashmir’s special status in 2019. Nine BJP workers were killed in Kulgam district alone in the past one year, they said.

“On August 5, (second anniversary of the revocation of semi-autonomous status) BJP workers unfurled the national flag everywhere in the Valley as they did on August 15. This has caused frustration among the militants,” Thakur said.

The spokesperson also linked the attacks to the local body elections held last year and developmental work in the Valley. “Since in a peaceful atmosphere, terrorism cannot flourish, this has unnerved the militants and they are on a killing spree,” he said.

Explaining the surge in attacks, political analyst Noor Mohammad Baba said the workers are victims of a larger hate perception that has developed against the BJP in the Valley. “The reason they have (selectively) become a target is because the BJP is seen as the biggest adversary in Kashmir,” he said.

(With inputs from Mir Ehsan in Srinagar)