SRINAGAR: In a virtual replay of the political resignations that followed almost every terror strike on party functionaries in J&K since June, a BJP worker in Anantnag on Friday quit within 24 hours of terrorists killing three young colleagues in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district. As fear of a fresh surge of violence targeting grassroots party workers coursed through the Valley, IGP (Kashmir Range) Vijay Kumar announced that security forces had seized the vehicle used in the attack and identified the assailant trio as being from The Resistance Front, a shadow outfit of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Mohammad Ashraf Wani from Anantnag’s Aishmuqam didn’t mention the Kulgam killings, but said he was severing all links with BJP. “I am offering my resignation from all positions and posts of the BJP and henceforth have no association with BJP overtly or covertly,” he said.
Nine BJP members have been gunned down by terrorists so far this year, starting with the assassination of Bandipora district party president Sheikh Waseem Bari, his father and brother in July. IGP Kumar said the trio shot dead on Thursday evening, including BJP’s Kulgam Yuva Morcha general secretary Fida Hussain Yatoo, had all been provided police protection but were moving about without their security guards when they were attacked.
Since Congress sarpanch Ajay Pandita was killed in Anantnag on June 8, BJP has borne the brunt of the terror surge. There has also been a spate of resignations from both parties, including panchayat heads who have received death threats from terrorists. In August, J&K police moved dozens of panchayat functionaries and other workers to safe houses across south Kashmir amid intelligence warnings about a wave of attacks by the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
