BUNTY MAHAJAN
SAMBA, MAY 31: The vehicular traffic along the Pathankote-Jammu national highway got disrupted for some time on Tuesday as people blocked the road here for 15 minutes in protest against the killing of a government school teacher Rajni Bala by militants in Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
Rajni hailed from Jammu district’s Bishnah tehsil and she was married in 2007 to one Raj Kumar of Samba’s Nankey Chak village, who is also a government school teacher in Kulgam. She is survived by her husband and a 13-year-old daughter Sana.
Both Rajni and her husband were appointed as government teachers in 2009 under the SC category and posted at Kulgam in the Kashmir valley. She is the fourth person killed by militants in Kashmir during the current month, with earlier two being a Revenue Department employee and a salesman at a wine shop and a TV artist. She also happens to be the second non-migrant local from Jammu working in the Valley to have been killed by militants during the last six months.
The latest killing has sent Jammu and Kashmir administration into a tizzy as it is yet to calm down anger among minority community over the killing of Rahul Bhat, a migrant Kashmiri Pandit working in Revenue Department in Budgam district, earlier this month.
Her killing sparked protests and condemnation from mainstream parties in Kashmir. The NC and PDP, condemned the killing and blamed the administration for failing to safeguard people.
A group of Kashmiri Pandits blocked the Srinagar-Jammu national highway at Vessu in Kulgam and also held demonstration in Srinagar’s Indira Nagar area in protest against the killing. A group of employees recruited under the SC/ST category held demonstration and demanded their relocation from Kashmir.
In Samba district, a group of local youth briefly blocked the Pathankot-Jammu national highway and burnt Pakistani flag. They threatened to block Jammu-Srinagar national highway if such killings were not stopped.
Meanwhile, at Nankey Chak, Rajni’s in-laws were in shock waiting for the arrival of the dead body which was brought home by police in the evening. The cremation will take place on Wednesday.
Her father-in-law Ram Lal recalled that everybody at home used to advise them come back home in view of the situation prevailing in Kashmir Valley, but the couple used to resist expressing helpless in leaving their government job especially when they have a daughter to look after. On Sunday evening, they had a video call with him for over five minutes, he recalled, adding that they all seemed very happy and none of them had any suspicion about the coming tragedy.
Rajni had married Raj Kumar in 2007 and two years thereafter, both got appointed as teacher in Kashmir’s Kulgam district by the J&K Service Selection Board against vacancies reserved for Scheduled Castes. The deceased along with her husband and daughter had come home in Samba’s Nanakey Chak village in March and returned after some days.
