Muslim neighbours rush to slain Kashmiri Pandit’s aid | India News – Times of India

SHOPIAN: Kashmiri Muslim neighbours ran to the orchard of the Nath brothers when they heard gunshots from that direction. They were the first to witness the bloodied body of Kashmiri Pandit man Sunil Kumar Nath and his wounded brother Pintoo, who were shot multiple times by a masked Pakistani terrorist in Chotigam village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Tuesday.
Later, hundreds of people from the majority community in the nearby areas gathered at the funeral of Nath — a 45-year-old father of three daughters and member of a handful of families who stayed behind in Chotigam during the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the height of militancy in the 1990s.
Nath’s Muslim neighbours made all the arrangements for his last rites and also took Pintoo to the hospital. Women rushed in droves to Nath’s home to console the bereaved.
At the funeral, the villagers shouted unity slogans and called for an end to the bloodshed.
“We have always lived here peacefully and shared our grief and celebrations for decades,” said a Kashmiri Pandit in Chotigam. But back-to-back attacks in four months have brought fear and a grim reminder of the terror-filled 90s, he said.
“Guards were deployed here again in April, but how can they provide us security when we go to the market or students go to school? We can’t stay confined to our houses. We have to go to our farms, orchards or for other work and earn a livelihood. We will die of starvation,” he said.
Sentries were guarding Kashmiri Pandits in Chotigam till 2016, but the protection was scrapped during the turmoil following the killing of terrorist Burhan Wani. The people had declined several offers for restoration of security, as they didn’t feel any threat — until this April when a popular chemist in the village was shot at.

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