Srinagar: Supinder Kour, the school principal who was killed by militants yesterday was cremated here on Friday with large number of people including from majority community participating in her last rites.
Members of Sikh community, majority of whom comprised family members and relatives of the slain school principal who was shot dead along with her colleague Deepak Chand, at Government Higher Secondary School (GHSS) Sangam, Eidgah, Srinagar, walked on foot from Aloochi Bagh to cremation ground at Karan Nagar, here.
Earlier, hundreds of members of the community assembled at the residence of the deceased at Aloochi Bagh here and took out a protest march from there while carrying her mortal remains on a stretcher.
The Sikh community members who were joined by Muslims carried the mortal remains of the deceased wrapped in a white shroud. They marched in a procession from Aloochi Bagh to cremation ground at Karan Nagar and held peaceful protests.
The mourners also staged a silent sit-in outside the civil secretariat here along with the dead body of the slain woman. They were demanding stringent punishment to those involved in the killing.
Later, senior police officers reached the spot and assured the protestors that perpetrators will be brought to book.
Earlier, while marching towards cremation ground, the Sikh community members chanted slogans, “We want Justice”, “Down with killers” and “Kashmir is ours”. Police tried to intervene and restrain the mourners from staging a sit-in outside the civil secretariat, however, it did not use any force to disperse the procession.
The Sikh leaders who were part of procession questioned the killing of Kour and said that minorities are not safe here. “There are many questions and establishments must answer,” they said, adding that government must take steps to ensure security of minority communities in Kashmir.
“The administration did not take adequate measures to ensure our safety,” they alleged. “Government is to be blamed which promised security for all.”
Pertinently, officials have said that the militants stormed into the Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Srinagar’s Eidgah area and fired upon the duo on Thursday morning. They were shifted to SKIMS hospital where they were declared dead on arrival. The Valley has been battered by similar incidents of killings in recent times.
Earlier on October 5, a prominent pharmacist from the Kashmiri Pandit community was killed in Srinagar. Makhan Lal Bindroo, the owner of Bindroo Medicate, was shot dead by militants.
Within an hour of Bindroo’s killing, militants had also shot dead a non-local person in the city’s Lalbazar area and another Mohammad Shafi, president of the local taxi stand, at Naidkhai in Bandipora district of north Kashmir.
“These incidents targeting civilians are abhorrent…this is an attempt to spread terror and to divide the Kashmiri community. We are investigating these incidents. We are sure of unmasking these terrorists…it will be done soon. This is being done at the behest of Pakistani handlers from across the border,” J&K DGP Dilbag Singh had said.