Jammu and Kashmir minister of state for home Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo resigned on Monday after coming under attack over the communal violence in Kishtwar that has left three people dead. Chief minister Omar Abdullah sent his resignation letter to governor N.N. Vohra, who has accepted it with immediate effect.
Mr Kitchloo was in Kishtwar, his hometown, to celebrate Id-ul-Fitr with his family when communal clashes erupted on Friday. The day-long frenzy left two persons (a Hindu and a Muslim) dead and a trail of burned properties. Mr Kitchloo, the local MLA, came under severe criticism for his allegedly poor handling of the situation. Friday’s bloody incidents set off widespread protests across the Jammu region’s Hindu-majority areas, when irate mobs attacked Muslim properties and clashed with the security forces. One more person was killed in the resulting violence, raising the toll to three.
Soon after submitting his resignation to the CM, Mr Kitchloo questioned the BJP’s right to demand his resignation. “Did Narendra Modi resign after the Gujarat riots?” he asked.
The state government on Monday ordered a judicial inquiry into the Kishtwar incidents. It will be conducted by a retired judge of the J&K high court in a time-bound manner. Earlier, the government had named Jammu’s divisional commissioner as inquiry officer to examine the circumstances that led to the worst communal clashes in Kishtwar.
The CM on Monday reviewed the situation in Jammu division at a meeting attended by various other ministers camping in the winter capital. The meeting discussed a number of steps to rehabilitate those affected in the clashes. It was decided to sanction immediate relief of up to `2 lakhs each to those whose houses were damaged or gutted and shops looted in violence in Kishtwar and other parts of Jammu division during past four days.
Mr Abdullah, who also chaired an all-party meeting, said while his government will take measures to restore calm in violence-hit areas of Jammu division, politicians and civil society as a whole had a major role to play in bringing back normality. In the evening, the CM held a separate meeting with prominent citizens in Jammu. It was decided that after the situation in Kishtwar and other parts of Jammu division improves, an all-party team will visit the affected areas.
The Army again staged flag marches through Kishtwar, where the uninterrupted curfew imposed on Friday afternoon remains in force. The police urged people through public announcements to maintain peace. Many other towns, including Jammu city, also remained under curfew. Sporadic violence was reported in some curfew-bound areas of Jammu division. The government had, as a precautionary measure, shut all educational institutions in Jammu for another day.
At Shalimar, near Kishtwar town, four policemen were injured when attacked with stones and other missiles by mobs. They also torched their vehicle and took away 10 wireless sets that the policemen were taking to Kishtwar from Doda town. Police and CRPF reinforcements used bamboo sticks and fired teargas shells and rifle shots in the air to chase away mobs. In another incident, a police ASP, Kulbir Singh, was injured at neighbouring Hadyal, reports said. The incident occurred during a protest by local residents against the arrest of a youth for his alleged involvement in Friday’s communal violence.
In Srinagar, the police arrested pro-independence JKLF leader Yasin Malik from his Maisuma home overnight. He had planned a protest march towards Lal Chowk over the communal violence in Jammu. The police also prevented separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani from addressing a press conference at his Hyderpora house by sending reporters back from its main gate. Mr Geelani has been under house arrest for several weeks.