National Conference president and MP Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said India won’t exist if the division of people on communal lines is not stopped.
He was talking to reporters after visiting the family of Supinder Kour, principal of a government school in Srinagar who was shot dead by militants on October 7 in the school along with another teacher, Deepak Chand.
“Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus are being divided across the country,’’ he said. “If this won’t stop forthwith, India won’t exist.
He said Muslim, Sikhs, Pandits and Buddhists will have to stand united to defeat the designs of those killing the minorities.
“We have to fight the enemies unitedly and don’t need to be afraid of them,” he said.
About the former NC provincial president Devender Singh Rana and senior leader S. S. Slathia quitting the NC, Abdullah said, in politics, leaders leaving parties happens. “This isn’t anything new. Leaders leaving parties happens in politics,’’ he said.
Kour and Chand were shot dead by militants two days after three civilians including Srinagar’s leading pharmacy owner M.L. Bindroo, a Kashmiri Pandit, was shot dead at his shop at Haft Chinar near Iqbal Park.
The killing of Kour and Bindroo triggered panic among the Pandit and Sikh communities in Kashmir.
Several migrant Kashmiri Pandits who had returned to Kashmir in lieu of a government job under the PM's employment package have fled Kashmir. The migrant employees have demanded the government ensure their safety and only then they would return to their duties. The government has reacted to migrant employees skipping duties with a warning that they will be dealt with as per the service rules and urged the employees not to leave the valley. The government has assured the migrant employees of security and posting at safer locations.
Pandurang Pole, divisional commissioner of Kashmir, has impressed upon the officers of different departments to preferably post these migrant employees in safe and secure zones instead of far-flung and vulnerable areas for the time being.
