After the killing of her wife by militants within minutes after he dropped her at her school in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, Raj Kumar, the husband of slain teacher Rajni Bala, accused the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Tuesday for turning a “deaf ear” to their repeated requests to transfer her to a safer area in view of the targeted killings of Hindus in the Union Territory.
Shattered by his wife’s demise, Kumar according to news agency PTI stated that Hindus are soft targets in Kashmir and the administration should consider relocating them in view of the fear psychosis triggered by the selective killings by militants.
The couple, Bala and Kumar, received a transfer order to another school in a safer area only on Monday night. Tuesday was supposed to be the last day for Bala at her old school, the report added.
The killing of Bala, who belonged to Samba district but was posted at a government school in Kulgam, is the second such killing of a Hindu employee in the district and the seventh targeted killing by militants in Kashmir in May.
Kumar, who is also a government school teacher in Kulgam, brought his wife’s body to their home in Samba.
A pall of gloom descended in the area as the body was brought to her home amid “Rajni Bala Amar Rahe” slogans.
“Had the administration transferred her to a safer place earlier, she might have been alive by now. I curse my destiny. Just a day after her transfer, she was killed by militants,” Kumar told reporters.
He said they had approached the chief education officer (CEO) for their transfer to a safer place after a member of the Hindu community was killed by terrorists at Kakran, which is close to Bala’s place of posting.
“I had given an application to the CEO. We had told him that the school is not safe for my wife, but he did not do anything,” Kumar as per PTI said.
Bala and Kumar were posted in two schools in Kulgam in 2009.
