SRINAGAR — The BJP on Sunday held a protest against the murder of party worker and former sarpanch Aijaz Ahmad Sheikh in Shopian and accused the Jammu and Kashmir civil administration of ignoring its requests for security to some key functionaries facing militant threats.
BJP workers gathered outside the ‘mini secretariat’ in Shopian and raised slogans against the district administration for not providing safe accommodation to vulnerable party leaders and workers.
Sheikh was killed and a tourist couple from Rajasthan were injured in twin militant attacks in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian and Anantnag districts late on Saturday.
One of the protesters said, “We have been requesting the deputy commissioner for a year to provide safe accommodation to our leaders and workers but he has been delaying. Now we have lost one worker.”
Altaf Thakur, a party spokesperson, said there was a lapse on part of the district administration at some level.
“Militancy will not be allowed to raise its ugly head in Kashmir again but there has been a lapse on the administration’s part as well. The responsibility for Aijaz’s martyrdom lies with the deputy commissioner,” he told PTI Videos.
“Sometime ago, we had written to the deputy commissioner that Aijaz was getting threat calls but he ignored it,” Thakur added.
Meanwhile, neighbours and relatives visited Sheikh’s family at Hirpora in Shopian and offered their condolences.
Sheikh is survived by his mother, his widow Shabnam Kausar and their three children, including a two-month-old daughter.
Kausar said Sheikh worked for the area’s development and made people aware of schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
“I want to ask him (the assailant) what my husband had done to him? Did he take his property that he murdered him? He made my three children orphans and me destitute. May Allah do the same to his (family),” she said.
Kausar said the assailant knocked on the door of their home late on Saturday and asked for her husband.
“I was preparing the feeder for my infant daughter when he came to the door. The moment my husband confirmed that he was Aijaz, the assailant fired seven to eight shots before fleeing,” she added. — (PTI)