Kheer Bhawani pilgrims attack: PDP-BJP govt encouraging anti-national elements in valley, claims JKNPP

A Kashmiri Hindu migrant performs a ritual during the annual fair at Kheer Bhawani Temple in Jammu

Jammu: In the wake of attack on Kashmiri Pandit pilgrims to Kheer Bhawani temple, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) today held a protest accusing the BJP-PDP government in the state of following the separatists' agenda in the Valley.

Decrying Saturday's attack, the JKNPP slammed the government for encouraging such activities.

"This government led by PDP and BJP is encouraging anti-national elements and following their agenda. Attack on the buses carrying pilgrims and not allowing Abhinav Gupt Yatra demonstrate the government following the separatists' agenda", JKNPP Chairman Harshdev Singh said.

Singh said the attack on pilgrims depict "parochial psyche" of the separatists who are hell-bent on vitiating peace and erasing the centuries-old heterogeneous diversity of Kashmir.

"The BJP has develop a soft corner for the secessionist forces which have further emboldened the anti-national elements to execute their nefarious designs," he said.

Terming the coalition government as a "sinister alliance", the JKNPP leader said the situation in the state has drastically worsened.

"The way, tight security had to be provided to Kheer Bhawani pilgrims depicts that situation in Kashmir has returned to the dark era of the 1990s", he said.

Questioning the silence of the BJP, JKNPP leader said the party which once raised hue and cry in the Assembly against the separatists, became a mute spectator and allowed them to hold anti-India seminars in Kashmir and other parts of the country.

Singh said that the denial of permission for Abhinav Gupt Yatra demonstrates that the government was interfering in the religious affairs of the Hindus.

He claimed that disallowing religious yatras and changing the name of Hindu shrines in Kashmir were attempts to push the Valley towards radicalisation and it was sheer irony that BJP along with its ally was endorsing the communal mission of Hurriyat and other separatist leaders.