AGENCIES | JAMMU TAWI

The Jammu and Kashmir unit of Congress on Wednesday staged a demonstration here against the recent killing of a party sarpanch by terrorists in the valley and demanded a judicial probe into the incident.
Led by Pradesh Congress Committee president Ghulam Ahmad Mir, a group of Congress leaders and activists came out of the party headquarters at Residency Road and held a peaceful demonstration to protest the killing of sarpanch Ajay Pandit.
Pandit (40) was shot dead by terrorists in his native village of Larkipora in south Kashmir''s Anantnag district on Monday. He was the sarpanch of the Lukbawan panchayat halqa in Larkipora area.
“Pandit was a basic member of Congress and this is the second killing of a Congress sarpanch in this area in the recent past which needs to be looked into. We want Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu to order a judicial probe into the killing to unveil the conspiracy and the negligence in protecting the precious lives,” Mir told reporters.
Earlier in November last year, Congress sarpanch Peer Mohammad Rafi and a government official were killed by terrorists in an attack in Hakoora area of Anantnag district.
“We want to know why a particular group is being targeted in a particular area and what is the motive behind such killings,” he asked and said the latest killing has caused a fear among the elected representatives.
The time demands that a fresh security assessment is made and those elected members be provided security who are living in vulnerable areas or facing threat to their lives, Mir further said.
Meanwhile, activists of Bajrang Dal also staged a protest against the killing of Pandita outside the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) office here and torched an effigy of Pakistan for its support to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
The protesters also raised anti-Pakistan slogans and urged the United Nations to declare Pakistan a terrorist country.