Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, May 12: Following the killings and resignation of Panchayat members during the Parliamentary elections, a group of anxious Panchayat members today blamed mainstream parties for these killings and threaten en-mass resignation if Government failed to identify the killers.
Dozens of Panchs and Sarpanchs today said that if the government failed to produce the killers of their colleagues within a week, all the 34,000 Panchayat representatives will resign.
“Militants do not kill us because at the time of Panchayat elections the United Jihad Council issued a statement that Panchayat members are for carrying out development in the State. It is National Conference (NC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress which are killing us,” Khurshid Malik, a Panchayat member told reporters here.
Malik said the mainstream political parties are blaming each other for killing Panchayat representatives, but no party is doing anything to save us.
“National Conference (NC) is saying that People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is killings the Panchayat members and PDP blames NC for doing it. We feel they are together killing us. There is no role of others in this,” he said.
Malik said the Panchs and Sarpanchs have formed a six-member committee to meet Hurriyat leaders to explain our position that they were not a hurdle to the Kashmir issue. “We are going to meet Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik, Civil society and Doctors Association of Kashmir for suggestions,” he said.
Nine Panchayat representatives have been killed in the last three years, including the recent killings in Tral and Gulzarpora villages of Pulwama district. The killings have created fear among them, and at least 200 of them have tendered their resignations which have not been accepted by the authorities.
Meanwhile, after resignation of over 50 Panchayat members in South Kashmir, four more Panchayat members today resigned from Handwara area of North Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
Four Panchayat members including two women have resigned in Handwara area of Kupwara district. The four have been identified as Ghulam Mohiudin Sheikh, Muhammad, Ramzan Shiekh, Shahista Begum and Haneefa Begum. The four are from Badgund Panchayat Halka in Mawar.
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