‘Even Muslims serving in security forces being targeted by militants,’ says Sanjay Raut
@the_news_21
Mumbai: Arguing that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir was getting out of hand with the rise in killings of Kashmiri pandits and attacks on the Hindu community, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre for busy promoting films rather than heeding to the plight of the Kashmiri pandits in the Kashmir valley.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena’s ally in Maharashtra also, hit out at the BJP-ruled Centre for not making “concrete efforts to rehabilitate Kashmiri pandits in their homeland.”
An angry Raut questioned, “Kashmir is burning once again. It is red with blood. The situation there is getting out of hand, but New Delhi’s prominent leaders are busy promoting films, be it ‘The Kashmir Files’ or ‘Samrat Prithviraj’. Is this the government’s job? Why aren’t they listening to the anger of Kashmiri pandits?”
He said that not just the Hindu community, but Muslims serving in the security forces, too, were being targeted by militants. He further remarked that the Centre’s claims of successful surgical strikes against militants had proven hollow with the rise in terrorist attacks on the valley.
The Shiv Sena chief spokesperson further said, “At least17-20 of our Muslim brothers serving in our country’s security forces have been killed in the last few months. Muslim policemen of all ranks – from havildar to Superintendent of Police from Srinagar to Pulwama – have been attacked by terrorists. Thousands of Kashmiri pandits have again begun an exodus from the Valley, but the BJP at the Centre is busy finding shivlings under the Gyanvapi mosque or the Taj Mahal.”
Against the backdrop of the tussle over ‘Hindutva’ in Maharashtra between the ruling Sena and the BJP, Raut said that Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had expressed grave concern over the deteriorating situation in Kashmir and said that Maharashtra would stand by the Kashmiri pandits and their families through thick and thin.
On Saturday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, in a statement, had said that Maharashtra would not leave the Kashmiri Pandits in the lurch. Hitting out at the Sena’s estranged former ally the BJP, Thackeray further said that the Kashmiri pandits were promised a ‘homecoming’ by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government, but had only faced violence since their return to the Valley.
The Chief Minister further remarked, “Kashmiri Pandits were shown the dream of ‘ghar wapsi’ (resettlement in the Valley), but they are being targeted and killed. The exodus of the Pandits is shocking.”
Meanwhile, NCP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase exhorted the BJP to get over its allegedly divisive politics of caste and religion while remarking that Maharashtra was the only state which had offered safe passage to the displaced Kashmiri Pandits while the BJP had only played with their sentiments.
