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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday, 7 June, said that he has asked for an appointment with Union Home Minister Amit Shah to go over the targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir Valley.
The development comes two days after Kejriwal, at the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) 'Jan Aakrosh Rally' at Delhi's Jantar Mantar, had criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government for mishandling the situation and said that he would meet Shah to discuss the Centre's action plan to stop the "massacre of Kashmiri Pandits."
"I have sought time from the Union home minister to discuss the continuing massacre of Kashmiri Pandits," Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.
What Did He Say at the Rally?
“The BJP government has failed to provide security to Kashmiri Pandits. Several meetings have been held but everyone wants to know the action plan," Kejriwal had said while addressing the rally on Sunday, 5 June.
He slammed the BJP, saying that the party "can't handle Kashmir, it only knows how to do dirty politics."
"In the last 30 years, there were two occasions when Kashmiri Pandits were forced to migrate from Kashmir and both these times Kashmir was ruled by the BJP. This means that the BJP does not know how to handle Kashmir."Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
He accused the Centre of not allowing the Kashmiri Pandits to protest the killings. "They are being confined, their rights being scuttled," he said.
The Backdrop
The attack on Kashmiri Pandits since May included that on Rahul Bhat, a clerk who was shot dead inside the tehsildar's office in Chadoora; Rajni Bala, a Hindu teacher who was killed on her way to work; Vijay Kumar, a bank employee from Rajasthan who was shot dead at his office in Kulgam; and Dilkhush Kumar, a brick kiln labourer, who was also fired at in central Kashmir. The gunfire injured another labourer at the kiln.
Three of the victims in eight such incidents in Kashmir since 1 May were off-duty police officers while five were civilians.
Thereafter, as fear gripped members of the community, many of them left the Valley for Jammu district on Friday, 3 June, demanding relocation.
Several government employees have also left Kashmir putting the jobs package for Kashmiri Pandits provided by the Centre in 2021, at risk.
(With inputs from PTI and The Telegraph.)
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