JK News Today
Jammu , June 03:
Municipal Councillor, Tral, Rakesh Pandita fell to terrorists’ bullets on Wednesday evening and by Thursday morning he was consigned to flames , leaving behind a question , who killed him and any ?
Rakesh represented so many profiles – he was an elected representative of t Tral ,he area that is known as fortress of militants in Kashmir , a member of the minority community of Kashmiri Pandits struggling to return to the land of their forefathers , and that he wanted to develop the area from where he was elected on the BJP ticket.
Terrorists didn’t want any of the three aspects of his personality . Any success on his part would have dented the constituency of terrorism and radicalism on which it thrives . The greater danger for the terror machinery was that his work could have encouraged the migrant Kashmiri Pandit community to return . They wanted to puncture this dream.
Rakesh Pandita is one of the thousands who fell to guns, sponsored by Pakistan . There hangs a tale that Pakistan would make all-out attempts to keep the Kashmiri Pandit out of the Valley . The return of the Kashmiri Pandits holds a promise for the community to be back in their land, where they had their houses, orchards and enriched the place with their knowledge and skills . Their return could have rejuvenated the communal harmony and spirit of mutual co-existence . Once that happened , radicalism that has grown in size and intensity would have to make a retreat.
Starting from the assassination of judge Neelkanth Ganjoo in broad day light at Amira Kadal in Srinagar in 1989 , to killing of Tika Lal Taploo, Prem Nath ,, and so many others, including Lassa Kaul and Sarla , the tale of the killings and the bloodshed is unending . There were massacres almost on regular intervals , Sangrampura in March 1997, Wandhama in January 1998 and Nadimarg in March 2003. There was no escape from the bullets and bombs.
True, as it is , that thousands of the local Muslims were also killed in the terror campaign that was unleashed in Kashmir by Pakistan . There are graveyards everywhere.
Here, it is sufficient to say that Rakesh Pandita and likes of him who fell to bullets represented an idea of development in the development-starved Kashmir and that of co-existence that was not to the liking of his assassins
