Jammu Tawi: All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) has strongly condemned the brutal killing of a Sarpanch and his wife in Anantnag district and asked the government to conduct a fresh security audit of all Panchayat members in vulnerable parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Anil Sharma, UT president of AJKPC described the terror attack as a cowardly act in a bid to derail the process of strengthening and empowering grassroots level democratic institutions in the Union Territory. “The Sarpanch Ghulam Rasool and his wife Jawhara Banoo, also a Panch, have been killed in a cowardly terror attack. This is not for the first time when terrorists have targeted the elected Panchayat members to create a fear psychosis among grassroots level representatives. From 2011 till now, around two dozen elected Panchayat have been gunned down in terror attacks. Such mindless and political killings will yield nothing but only further firm up determination of Panchayat members to serve their people,” Sharma said while expressing his sympathies with the grieved family members.
These killings have again shifted back the focus on the need for a fresh audit of security of elected Panchayat representatives in troubled and vulnerable areas of Jammu and Kashmir, he said, adding “All concerned security agencies should work in close coordination while reviewing the security of Panchayat members to plug all loopholes”. The AJKPC leader also demanded immediate an ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh (Rs 25 lakh each) to the next of kins of martyred Panchayat members.
