Killings in Kashmir won't stop until justice is served: Farooq Abdullah

Farooq was replying to a question over the killing of Puran Krishan Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit who was gunned down by militants on Saturday outside his ancestral house in south Kashmir's Shopian district.

Reasi (J&K):Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Monday courted a controversy saying that "killings won't stop in the Valley until justice is served”. He however did not specify what "justice" meant.

Speaking to reporters in Jammu's Reasi district where he had gone to express his condolences to the family of party leader Babu Ram, who recently passed away, the National Conference chief asked why the situation has not improved despite the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, which the BJP earlier blamed for the targeted killings.

He lashed out at BJP over its claims of normalcy post abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and said that had the situation been improved on the ground, another innocent Kashmiri pandit would not have been killed. Asked about the recent killings in the Valley, particularly that of a Kashmir Pandit in Shopian on Saturday, Abdullah said, “It will never stop until justice is served."

Puran Krishan Bhat was gunned down by militants on Saturday outside his ancestral house in the Chowdhary Gund area of the south Kashmir's district, where he had gone to look after his orchards. Abdullah did not elaborate on what "justice" he was talking about, but he was apparently referring to the restoration of Article 370 abrogated by the Centre.

"It has been four years since Article 370 was revoked (in August 2019) but still people are dying. If Article 370 was responsible for killings then why this innocent Pandit Puran Krishan Bhat has been killed. There must be some reason to it. Article 370 was not responsible for killings because terrorism is being sponsored from outside,” he added.