PDP protests at Civil Secretariat in Jammu, demands end to bloodshed in Kashmir

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Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday staged a protest at the civil secretariat in Jammu against the killing of seven civilians in Pulwama district of south Kashmir over the weekend.

MLC Firdous Tak and former legislators Aijaz Mir and Yawar Mir led the protest inside the secretariat.

Reports said the protesters assembled at the canteen of the secretariat and marched in its lawns, demanding an end to unabated civilian killings at the hands of government forces.

The protesters were carrying banners which read ‘stop innocent killings in Kashmir’, ‘stop bloodshed in Kashmir’ and ‘Save Kashmir’.

MLC Firdous Tak alleged that the Governor had failed to ensure safety of people and that New Delhi should react before situation slips out of India’s hands, news agency GNS quoted him as saying.

Tak who was recently attacked by Bajrang Dal workers in Jammu said that blood is spilled on streets of Kashmir by the government forces and such vicious cycle of violence needed to be ended soon.

“Otherwise situation would come to such a pass that nobody would be able to control it,” he said.

Following the protests, IGP Jammu SD Singh Jamwal, DIG Jammu Vivek Gupta along with other senior officers rushed to civil secretariat.

On Saturday, seven civilians were killed after forces opened fire on protesters near the site of a gunfight in Sarnoo village of Pulwama, triggering widespread protests and condemnations.

Three militants and a soldier were killed in the gunfight.