The recent attacks against Jammu and Kashmir’s grassroots public representatives by suspected militants have reduced them to a scared lot as about 40 of them quit their posts on Monday raising the number of such resignations to 62 in past two days.
Two village heads including a woman were shot at by gunmen in north-western town of Sopore since Friday. One of them Habibullah Mir later succumbed to his injuries whereas the other Zoon Begum is battling for her life in a Srinagar hospital.
On Monday, dozens of terrified sarpanches and panches gathered outside Sopore’s Dak Bungalow to announce their resignations, pleading “We committed blunder by contesting a panchayat elections and apologise for it.” Riyaz Ahmed Lone, a sarpanch of Rafiabad block of Baramulla district, told reporters that government “has exploited us only to further its interests… we were used as pawns to serve political ends.”
Two other sarpanches, Showkat Ahmed Mir and Muhammad Khalil Mir, alleged that the government failed to fulfill its promises and instead pushed thousands of grassroots public representatives in “extreme dangerous situation.” They added that the government failed to provide them security in the face of threats from separatist militants and other vested interests. “But we have decided that we will not accept the government’s security because that would only make us more vulnerable now,” said Mr Lone. Chief minister Omar Abdullah who has termed these attacks as gruesome and heinous crime against humanity has reiterated that it was not physically possible for the government to provide security cover to all grassroots level representatives. There are as many as 29,719 panches and 4,128 sarpanches in Jammu and Kashmir. He has, however, asked the law enforcing agencies to initiate all necessary measures to ensure the bloody incidents of past week do not reoccur. Following a review meeting chaired by Mr Abdullah, the state government has ruled out individual protection to panchayat member.