Fear grips panchayat members in south Kashmir after militant attacks

Mir has already survived an attempt on his life. “I was attacked in 2001 when I was associated with National Conference. My survival was a miracle as militants fired several rounds of bullets,” he says, lying on a handmade mattress in a government accommodation in Srinagar.

Mir, who was elected a member of the block development council in 2019, later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and has been living at the government-provided house in Srinagar since.

“All the elected panches and sarpanches worry for their lives. The government needs to provide a secure atmosphere to the panchayat members so that democracy is strengthened at grass root level,” Mir says.

Ghulam Mohammad Mir, a BDC member from Litter Pulwama, is staying in a government-provided accommodation for safety. An attempt was made on his life even years ago.

There are 4,400 sarpanches and over 35,000 panches in Jammu and Kashmir. According to Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference, a body of elected panches and sarpanches, 24 panchayat members have been killed by militants in Kashmir since 2014.

“It is a very grave concern that panchayat members have become soft targets of militants. Despite all the assurances from the administration, the killings didn’t stop,” says the chairman of the conference, Shafeeq Mir.

 Fleeing homes 

Soon after the killing of panchayat members last week, Iqbal Wani, 42, from Kellam Kulgam left for Jammu in the middle of the night. “I didn’t want to wait for government to take me to a secure place. The situation was turning worse and I took a cab to Jammu, where I am living on rent,” he says.

Jammu according to Wani is a secure place where politically affiliated people don’t face militant attacks. “We are almost 115 panchayat members taking refuge in Jammu right now. We had to leave our families and run for safety,” he says.

Riyaz Ahmad Bhat, a district development council member from Devsar Kulgam, too has stopped visiting his residence after militant attacked panchayat members last week.

“I have been already given security cover by the administration and live in a government accommodation in Kulgam. Due to the prevailing threat perception, I have stopped visiting to my native village and keep myself confined to secure accommodation,” he says. 

“We are more than 300 panchayat members in Kulgam and the administration took all of them to a secure accommodation,” says Bhat, a representative for panchayat members in his block.

He adds that a major of the panchayat members in the southern districts have gone into hiding over the last two weeks. “All the meetings and programmes of panchayat members have been temporarily cancelled,” he says.

‘Derailing political process’

Like Ghulam Mohammad Mir, Anees-ul- Islam Ganie too has suffered ever since becoming a panchayat member from Sogam Kokernag in south Kashmir's Anantnag district in 2018.

A former businessman who was attacked by militants last year, Ganie had never expected to be living a nomadic life. “We risked our lives by contesting the panchayat election yet the government doesn’t care about us,” he says.

He claims that attacks are aimed at disrupting the election process in the Union territory. “Whenever a poll process starts, sarpanches are attacked. We don’t live under heightened security cover and it becomes easy for militants to attack us,” he says.

Shafeeq Mir, the representative of panchayat members, echoes the sentiment. “Last week when the government announced that assembly elections will be held within eight months in J&K, militants started targeting panches and sarpanches. Three panchayat members have been killed this month. The reason could be that militants believe panchayat members mobilise people for the electoral process.”

Ghulam Mohammad Mir is not sure when he will visit his constituency. 

Similarly, Mushtaq Wani often fails to attend the gram sabha and review meetings in his ward due to the militant threats. “We are supposed to follow a set protocol. Those panchayat members who are living in government accommodations have to inform the police before leaving,” he says.

Read also: How a year of ceasefire is changing life along LoC

Low honorarium and lack of safety

What is also worrying panchayat members is the low stipend. Shafiq Mir says the administration should work on strengthening the panchayat system by empowering these representatives. “It has been a long pending demand of the panchayat members to increase the honorarium. We have taken up the issue with the administration multiple times, yet our grievances have not been resolved,” he says.

“We request the UT to create a panchayat development fund on the pattern of MLAs’ constituency development fund to improve living standards of people at panchayat level. Our wages are the same as beneficiaries of old age pension who too are given an amount Rs 1,000 per month,” he says.

Given the threat perception, Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar says, “We provided them secure accommodation in Srinagar. Some have been put up in district headquarters,” adding that the police busted all the modules involved in the killing of sarpanches.

On Wednesday, police killed three militants of the Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit in Nowgam Srinagar, which it claimed was involved in the killing of sarpanch Sameer Ahmed Bhat of Khonmoh.

Earlier, on Monday, the police said it had busted a module of the proscribed militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen involved in the killing of sarpanch Shabir Ahmad Mir in Kulgam district, with the arrest of three terrorist associates.

“The vehicle used in this attack and two pistols have been seized from them,” the police said.