Police foils ‘Kashmir chalo’ march against civilian killings

Jammu: Following a minor scuffle, the police on Saturday foiled ‘Kashmir Chalo’ march at Lakhanpur against the recent civilian killings in Kashmir region.
Scores of Punjab Shiv Sena activists led by their president Yog Raj Sharmareached at Lakhanpur near New toll plaza in the shape of a rally from Pathankot(Punjab) for proceeding toward Srinagar to the meet with families of those people who recently killed by militants.
They were, however, stopped by J&K police at Lakhanpur and not allowed to move further.
The move from the neighboring state started taking place barely seven days after the National Human Rights Commission issued notices to the Jammu and Kashmir government and police over the recent spate of targeted killings of civilians from minority communities.
The National Human Rights Commission has issued notices to the Jammu and Kashmir government and police over the recent spate of targeted killings of civilians from minority communities. The Commission referred to news reports about the killing of two government school teachers, Supinder Kaur, a Sikh, and Deepak Chand, a Hindu, in Srinagar on October 7. This was after well-known pharmacist Makhan Lal Bindroo, from the Kashmiri Pandit community, was gunned down on October 5 in Srinagar. On the same day, a Bihar-native, street food-seller Virender Paswan, was killed.
The protestors were pacified by the Kathua administration. “Tehsildar Kathua namely Vikram Kumar reached on the spot and tried to pacify the protesters and said that a proper permission is needed from competent authority to proceed towards Srinagar in the shape of rally and said that which is not obtained by them”, said a senior police officer.
He said that ignoring the administration’s request the protesters started proceedings towards Jammu following which they were brought to the police station Lakhanpur.
Pertinently, tens of thousands of non-local workers, majorly from the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Punjab, are employed in the skilled and non-skilled sectors of Kashmir Valley as carpenters, barbers, painters, masons, tailors, etc.