Congress, RSS delegations meet families of terror victims in Rajouri

Jammu, Jan 7 (PTI) Members of local Congress and RSS visited Dhangri village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district where six people were killed and several others injured in terrorist attacks earlier in the month.

The Congress delegation led by its spokesperson Deepika Pushkar Nath criticised Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and the Centre over their claims of restoration of normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir.

The RSS delegation too demanded a probe into the disarming of village defence committee (VDC) members without any government order.

“The co-ordination between the Indian Army and the police needs to be stepped up with enhanced vigilance to prevent loss of innocent lives. This (Dhangri incident) is an example of governance and administrative failure in full measure,” Nath, an advocate, said on Saturday.

She appealed to the central government to hold a fresh security audit of the region.

Offering her condolences to the victims’ families, the Congress leader said, “It was heartbreaking and painful to watch the families who lost their loved ones in an instance of mindless violence as a result of a monumental security breach.”

Nath said the tragedy could have been avoided if the authorities were vigilant enough.

“This tragedy could have been avoided had the administration been a little vigilant and alert as this attack took place days after the Sidhra encounter,” she said.

Four heavily-armed terrorists, travelling in a truck to Kashmir after infiltrating from Pakistan, were killed in a “chance encounter” on December 28 last year.

The gunfight had taken place early morning amid dense fog near Tawi Bridge in the Sidhra bypass area along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

“It is clear that the LG administration and BJP in an attempt to pat their own backs by selling the lies of normalcy and peace have made people of Jammu and Kashmir vulnerable to such attacks and Rajouri was one such example.

“It has become a habit of the LG administration to issue ex-gratia amount and announce jobs for the victims of terror attacks but they pay very less attention towards prevention of such dastardly attacks and protection of the citizens,” she said.

“I on behalf of my party appeal to the LG administration that besides being compensated these families deserve justice, those who have done this should be brought to the book,” the Congress leader added.

A delegation of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh led by its J&K chief Gautam Mengi met the families of the victims on Friday and questioned the disarming of the VDCs.

“Who were the people in police and civil administration who ordered depositing of the VDC weapons without any formal government order? They need to be identified and punished,” Mengi said.

Vishva Hindu Parishad Working president Rajesh Gupta, who also accompanied the delegation, said the incident is not the failure of the security forces but an indication of the weakness of the intelligence agencies.