The BJP leadership has swung into action after terrorists killed its youth leader Shabir Ahmad Bhat on the eve of Eid. The killing has forced the party’s grassroots workers to flee to safe havens.
A senior police officer of south Kashmir, while talking to The Sunday Guardian, said that all the mainstream political workers in South Kashmir especially from the BJP have been told not to move without security cover in vulnerable areas. “Shabir Ahmad Bhat was killed because he had gone to his village in Pulwama without his personal security officer,” he said. Reports from South Kashmir said the government has already provided accommodation to the vulnerable BJP workers in the main district headquarters of South Kashmir with security cover. The killing of BJP worker Shabir Ahmad Bhat has invoked sharp criticism from the BJP leaders, especially from Amit Shah. Many rival political parties, including Congress, has accused the BJP of exploiting unemployed youths in Kashmir by giving them doles of money and gadgets.
“The BJP has been giving motorbikes, laptops and mobile phones to many youths in Kashmir to lure them into their ranks,” said state president of Congress Ghulam Ahmad Mir, while expressing grief on the killing of Shabir Ahmad Bhat. Mir was pointing to recent media reports which claimed that recently senior BJP leader Ram Madhav distributed motorbikes and gadgets among many BJP workers in Kashmir.
The killing of Shabir has forced many BJP’s youth workers to flee from their villages of South Kashmir to safer places under security. It is in place to mention that earlier terrorists had killed BJP youth leader Gowhar Bhat in South Kashmir in November 2017. The BJP is trying its best to spread its footprints in the Kashmir valley ahead of the parliamentary elections.