More than 100 Hindu families have fled Kashmir as panic spread after the killing of a Hindu school teacher in Kulgam, a community leader said on Wednesday.
Terrorists on Tuesday shot dead Rajni Bala, 36, outside a government school in Kulgam that lies south of Srinagar – the latest in a spate of targeted killings of civilians.
Avtar Krishan Bhat, president of a Kashmiri Pandit colony in Baramulla, said that around half of the 300 families living in the area had fled since Tuesday.
“They were terrified after yesterday’s killing. We will also leave by tomorrow as we are waiting for a government response,” he said. “We had asked the government to relocate us outside Kashmir.”
Residents claimed police had sealed off a area in Srinagar and stepped up security around places where Kashmiri Pandit government employees live.
The local administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on families fleeing, but Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, last month assured Kashmiri Pandits that measures would be taken for their security.
Last month, Rahul Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit working at the tehsil office was shot dead inside his office, leading to protests by other employees from the Kashmiri Pandit community who demanded re-location to safer areas outside the Kashmir valley.
“We have killed all those militants who were responsible for the earlier killings,” IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar told Reuters on Wednesday.
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