Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday dared separatist militants to “attack me and see the response” instead of targeting recently elected village heads and other members of panchayats who were unarmed but were being picked up by gunmen as soft targets.
“I know they are cowards. They attack unarmed people who are not doing any politics either. They are not attacking me because they know they will get a befitting response,” the Chief Minister told a hurriedly called press conference referring to the September 23 killing of a naib sarpanch in north-western Baramulla districts. The incident, the latest in a series of such acts by suspected militants, hit the panic button as dozens of grassroots public representatives have quit their posts. The resignations were announced through paid classified in local newspapers.
However, the chief minister said that the government has received only fifty resignations from sarpanchs and panchs since last year and none of these was being accepted by it. He regretted that a false impression was being created outside is that Kashmir “is going thro-ugh massive upheaval and is simmering. He also ruled out political rivalry being behind these killings. He said that militants were out to unset the process which he said was meant for development.