Srinagar: Describing the killing of three civilians in Kathua as a terror attack, Union minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday (March 9) claimed that there was a “deep conspiracy” to disturb the peaceful atmosphere in the border district.
Union home secretary Govind Mohan arrived in Jammu on Sunday to review the security situation there in the aftermath of the deaths of a minor and his two uncles, who were reportedly abducted and killed by suspected militants.
The Resistance Front, which is believed to be an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba outfit, has reportedly claimed responsibility for the killings.
A complete shutdown was observed on Sunday in Bani, Billawar and other adjoining areas of Kathua where the security situation has deteriorated in recent months amid reports that a group of foreign militants had taken refuge in the higher reaches of Jammu division.
Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti said that the situation in Kathua was “deeply alarming”, with nearly a dozen people from both Muslim and Hindu communities losing their lives in a “short span of time”.
“Five of them were allegedly chased by police and cow vigilantes which led to fatal accidents. Subsequently the bodies of two members of [the] Hindu community were discovered followed by three more yesterday including the heartbreaking case of a fourteen year old. Tragically, while the police seem more focused on extracting false confessions from victims like Makhan Din the real perpetrators are still at large,” the PDP chief said in a post on X.
The bodies of Roshan Lal and Shamsher, which bore strangulation marks, were found near a stream in the jurisdiction of the Billawar police station on February 14.
Police were probing the involvement of militants in the killings.
On Saturday, the bodies of Darshan Singh, Yogesh Singh and a minor boy, who were part of a groom’s escort who had gone missing on Wednesday, were recovered from a river in the upper reaches of Billawar, prompting widespread fear and anger in the district where militancy has staged a deadly comeback.
Sources say local involvement in supporting militants being probed
Official sources told The Wire that the involvement of locals in providing logistical support and shelter to the militants was being probed.
“Most of these terrorists are foreigners and it is not possible for them to survive the deadly winter without local support,” a source said.
According to official data, at least seven persons have been booked under the Public Safety Act by the Kathua district administration on charges of providing support to militants.
The PDP said that around 30 individuals have been charged under the Public Safety Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act “with scant or no evidence”.
“There are indications that certain disruptive elements possibly operating both within and across the border may be stoking communal tensions in this sensitive border district. The authorities must act swiftly yet judiciously to identity and bring the true culprits to justice ensuring that peace and communal harmony is maintained,” Mufti said on X.
MLA heckled, says he was targeted for speaking about death of man allegedly tortured in custody
Meanwhile a complete shutdown was observed in parts of Kathua where anger is simmering against the spate of civilian killings in recent weeks.
On Saturday evening, unidentified youngsters heckled and scuffled with Rameshwar Singh, the independent MLA from the Bani constituency, who had gone to meet the bereaved families at a hospital in Billawar.
“You are trying to politicise the tragedy. Please leave immediately. Billawar is a land of patriots. You are a traitor,” one of the youth could be heard shouting at Singh.
Speaking with reporters, the MLA said he was targeted because he spoke about the demise of Makhan Din.
“Is speaking about the targeting of Muslims a crime?” asked Singh, who had to leave the area in a huff on Saturday evening as the situation appeared to go out of control.
Din, a young tribal man from the Billawar tehsil, died by suicide on February 5, alleging that the police had tortured him in custody and that they were trying to frame him in a false case of militancy.
A court in Kathua directed the police to probe the allegations and file an FIR into the incident. A magisterial inquiry was also ordered into Din’s suicide.
Kathua had been freed of militancy in years leading up to 2019
On July 8 last year, five soldiers were killed when a group of militants ambushed a cavalcade of army vehicles in the Badnote village of Kathua, in one of the worst post-2019 attacks on armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
Kathua district was freed of militancy in the years running up to the bifurcation and demotion of Jammu and Kashmir into a Union territory by the BJP-led Union government on August 5, 2019.
In 2013, ahead of then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in New York, a group of suspected Pakistani militants carried out an attack on a police station in the heavily militarised district, killing four policemen.
The group of militants, believed to be fresh infiltrators, then commandeered a police truck to the Samba district, where they attacked an army camp and killed an officer among others.
