Calling for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, a senior minister in Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s Cabinet on Saturday alleged that minorities in the plains of Jammu province were living in fear as some people “in the system” were branding them “drug pedlars under a conspiracy” and targeting them.
Javed Rana, who holds the portfolios of Jal Shakti, Forest, Ecology and Environment, and Tribal Affairs, visited family members of Mohammad Parvez, a 21-year-old Gujjar man, who died allegedly in firing by a police party in the Phallian Mandal area on Thursday evening.
Later, talking to the media, he described the killing of Parvez as “a conspiracy”.
“This (tribal Gujjar) community is being defamed,” he said, adding, “Selected killings are taking place, leading to fear among minorities in Jammu, Samba, Kathua and Udhampur.”
“This is enough and it will not be tolerated now,” he said. “Those who killed the tribal youth are not just two people who opened fire, but some people sitting in the bureaucracy are behind it.” He also said there should be an impartial inquiry into the incident.
“I have told the L-G Sahib (Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha) also that some people sitting in the system are taking advantage of the dual power system. To hide their failures, they are making unarmed and innocent people the target of bullets,” Rana said. He said this dual power structure, minorities in Jammu, Samba, Kathua and Udhampur are (living) under an atmosphere of fear.” He also demanded that the L-G immediately transfer all those responsible for the maintenance of law and order in Jammu.
“He (the L-G) should bring change in the system, right from the bottom to the top, because law and order, as well as the cadre posts, are with him,” Rana said, adding that it is necessary to have “balance in the administration”. This balance used to be there in the administration earlier, “right from the days of Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah,” he said.
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“The problem is that there is no balance in the system today, and our people are not in the system,” he said.
Rana said he wanted to convey to Prime Minister Narendra Modi the need for bringing “balance in the system”. He demanded that the central government honour the mandate of the people and restore statehood to J&K. “God willing, we will then ensure maintenance of law and order,” he said.
In the killing of Parvez, police have said he died in the crossfire between drug pedlars and a small party of police chasing them, but his family has insisted he was neither linked to drug pedlars nor had any past criminal record.
The Jammu district administration has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident, and the police have constituted a special investigation team to look into the matter. Two police men, Head Constable Baljinder Singh and Selection Grade Constable Pawan Singh, have been suspended pending inquiry.
