Wife of Kashmiri Pandit killed by terrorists says her husband felt insecure, pleaded for transfer

New Delhi, May 13: The wife of Rahul Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit killed by terrorists in Badagaum, Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday said that her husband felt insecure while working in Chadoora.

Meenakshi Bhat told India Today TV that her husband had requested the local administration to transfer him to a district headquarter. Despite his plea, he was not transferred she said.

She also told reporters that her husband would say everyone behaves nicely with him and nobody can harm him. Yet no-one protected him. The terrorists must have asked someone about him. Otherwise how would they have know, she also said.

Rahul Bhat, who had got the job of a clerk under the special employment package for migrants in 20120-11, was gunned down by terrorists inside the Tehsil office in Chadoora town.

"His body should be returned immediately and an inquiry ordered into the incident to identify all those who are involved in his cold-blooded murder," his father Bita Bhat said at his Durga Nagar residence in the outskirts of Jammu.

Wails and shrieks filled the house as mourners including neighbours and relatives rushed to comfort the family after hearing about the killing of Bhat, who was in his early 30s.

"I was at a hospital accompanying my ailing brother when a family friend called from Kashmir and informed me about the incident. I tried to contact the deputy commissioner of Budgam and the concerned police officers but my calls went unanswered," the father told the mediapersons, trying to put up a brave face and hold up his emotions.

He said it was the responsibility of the deputy commissioner to at least inform the family as his employee was killed inside his office chamber in broad-daylight.

"If a person is shot inside his office, nobody is safe in the valley...when such a thing has happened it is a glaring example of the government's failure. Those serving (among the Kashmiri Pandits) there are doing it at their own risk as the government has failed to provide security to them," he said.

Tears rolling down her cheeks, Rahul Bhat's mother Babli asks the government to "return" her son.
A relative of Bhat broke down before the media. "They have taken our children for dying there and not for jobs."

(With PTI inputs)