Infuriated by the brutal killing of a teacher by terrorists in Kashmir on Tuesday, her relatives and colleagues gathered for her cremation in Samba on Wednesday, and raised slogans against the BJP government for its “failure” to curb the cycle of targeted killings in the Valley. Rajni Bala was gunned down by terrorists at her school.

Angry mourners blocked the strategic Jammu-Pathankot highway to vent their anger against the killing of the teacher. However, police officers could be able to persuade them to lift the protest on the highway due to which several vehicles were stranded.

Advertisement

A large number of colleagues of Rajni Bala, who had come from Kashmir to be present at her funeral, demanded their transfer to Jammu as they were feeling unsafe in the Valley. J&K BJP chief Ravinder Raina and MP Jugal Kishore faced the anger of these teachers and Rajni’s relatives complaining that the administration has failed to curb the killings of Hindu employees and teachers in Kashmir.

A woman teacher, who did not want to be identified, said she and her husband were posted in north Kashmir’s Kupwara for the past 15 years and have not seen such a worst situation in the Valley. “We are living in constant fear now and want to be shifted to Jammu,” she said.

Another teacher from Jammu said he and many others like him were on regular posting and not recruited under the PM’s package as such there was no hassle in shifting them back to Jammu.

The BJP chief tried to pacify the teachers by saying that he has already talked to Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha on the issue.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people attended the cremation of Rajni Bala at Nanak Chak in the Samba district of Jammu. DIG Vivek Gupta, DC Anuradha Gupta, and many other district officers were present at the cremation ground.

Employees of the minority Hindu community in Kashmir said they wanted to migrate en mass to Jammu and claimed that authorities were not allowing them to move out of their residential clusters.

On the other hand, Congress spokesman Ravinder Sharma, while strongly condemning the targeted killing of the women school teacher from Samba, said the government must stop making “hollow claims” of normalcy in Kashmir, instead, they should deal with the situation effectively.

The minorities in Kashmir are in a panic and the government has no strategy to ensure security to them and employees posted in sensitive areas even as they desperately asking to be shifted to safer places immediately.