Mir was the fourth panchayat member to be targeted by militants this year. There has been a sudden increase in the number of attacks on Panchs and Sarpanches in the last two years. Officials said that the panch and sarpanch are easy targets of the militants and those panchayat members who are in danger have been provided with safe accommodation. “The NIA probe will try to unearth a larger conspiracy behind these attacks,” an official said on condition of anonymity.
All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) president Anil Sharma told ET, “We are demanding that the central government get the NIA probed into a larger conspiracy behind these murders. Was targeted by terrorists between 2011 and 2022. The motive behind these selective killings should be probed and the NIA should identify those responsible for such attacks.”
Sharma said those responsible for the attacks did not want democratic institutions to be strengthened in Jammu and Kashmir. AJKPC is a registered organization of the members of Elected Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). In view of the increase in the number of attacks, the group is demanding security cover for all panchayat members. Sarpanch Manzoor Ahmed Bangru was assassinated in Pattan on 15 April. His bullet-soaked body was found in a garden.
Apart from Mir and Bangru, terrorists allegedly killed two more sarpanches this year. On March 2, Muhammad Yakub Dar of Kulgam in south Kashmir was targeted, while a week later Samir Ahmed Bhat, the sarpanch of Khanmoh, was shot dead on the outskirts of Srinagar.
More than 3,652 sarpanches and 23,629 panches were elected after the elections in 2018. However, citing threats to their lives, most of the elected members were forced to stay in hotels in Srinagar and Delhi. “Many of them have been provided security based on threat assessment by police and intelligence agencies,” a Union Home Ministry official said.
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