Jammu|March,9 : A day after the bodies of three persons, including a minor, were found in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, Union minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday pointed to the involvement of terrorists in the killings and said a “deep conspiracy” was being hatched to spoil the peace in the area.
The bodies of Varun Singh, 15, and his uncles Yogesh Singh, 32, and Darshan Singh, 40, were found in Ishu nullah in the remote Malhar area in the higher reaches of the district on Saturday. In a post on X, Jitendra Singh, who represents Udhampur Parliamentary constituency that covers Kathua, said: “The brutal killing of 3 youth by terrorists in Bani area of district Kathua is extremely sad as well as a matter of great concern. There appears to be a deep conspiracy behind spoiling the atmosphere in this peaceful area”. “We have discussed this matter with the officials concerned. The Union Home Secretary himself is reaching Jammu so that the situation can be assessed on the spot. I am confident that it will be ensured that such incidents do not happen again and the confidence of the people remains strong,” he added.Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan is reviewing the security situation at a meeting in Jammu. The killings triggered protests in the area, and a shutdown was observed in Billawar and the adjoining areas on Sunday.
&K Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary condoled the killings, and said “increasing crime is a matter of concern.” He also expressed concern over the “life-threatening” attack on Bani MLA Rameshwar Singh, who was assaulted by a group of protesters while he had gone to meet the family members of the deceased at a local hospital in Billawar late Saturday night.
The MLA’s security guards had to intervene and escort him away. Reacting to his heckling at the hospital in Kathua, Singh said it was an attempt to vitiate the atmosphere. “I want to tell those who attacked me not to vitiate the atmosphere. Since the day they (trio) went missing, I had been raising my voice for them and was also in touch with police,” he said. The MLA said he was attacked because he had also raised the issue of Makhan Din, a 25-year-old Gujjar youth from Billawar, who ended his life by consuming insecticide last month, alleging police torture over his suspected links with terrorists. “Is speaking for a Muslim a sin? Should we not raise the voice for Muslims? Anyone raising his voice for Muslims becomes a militant” he said.
He said he will not be cowed down and will “continue to raise my voice for the victims, irrespective of their religion.” “This is a clear case of target killings by militants, engulfing the peaceful area in fear and anger…we want the government to intensify the anti-militancy operations in the forests to neutralise the militants hiding in the forests for the last one year,” local BJP leader Gopal Krishan, who led a group of protesters at Phinter chowk, said. He said the people will not allow militants to succeed in their designs and harm the communal harmony by carrying out selective killings. Senior BJP leader and Billawar MLA Satish Sharma, who visited the deceased family, said it is premature to say who killed the three civilians. “It is a matter of investigation as nobody has seen how they were killed. Police are looking in all aspects, including the terror angle, in the case,” he said, adding a clear picture will emerge once the postmortem report comes. The Congress demanded a high-level investigation to clear the apprehensions of locals and overcome the current situation of “great fear” and sense of insecurity in the entire belt.
