Village headmen threaten mass resignation in Valley

Geelani says panchs acting as informers for police

At a time when panchayat members in Kashmir are becoming soft target of militants, hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani on Monday subtly accused them of working as police informers.

“For some kind of materialistic benefits the panchayat members are assigned the job to maintain vigil over the pro-freedom elements in their respective areas. Later  those persons about whom they give information are arrested by the police,” the Hurriyat leader said in a statement.

He asked them to go for an en masse resignation ‘to give a message to the world that they support the freedom movement.’

“Any person who supports the establishment here, works against the ongoing movement and New Delhi exploits them by giving an impression that the people of Kashmir are content with New Delhi’s rule,” Geelani added.

However, the octogenarian separatist leader said the killing of the panchayat members cannot be justified.

Earlier on Monday, the panchayat members said that they will go for the mass resignation if they are perceived as an obstacle in the resolution of Kashmir issue.

While holding the pro-India parties responsible for the killing of village council member in the recent past, they threatened if guilty are not brought to book, they will resign en masse.

“We want a thorough investigation into the matter and want guilty to be punished. We are protesting so that the persons involved in the killing of our colleagues are punished at the earliest,” Khurshid Malik, general secretary, Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Association said.

“National Conference (NC) is saying that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is behind the killings and PDP alleges that NC was doing it. We feel they all are killing us together,” he added.

Malik said they were ready to resign en masse, but had decided to hold deliberations with separatist leaders to clear their stand. “We are ready to go for en masse resignation, but before that we are going to meet separatist leaders. We have formed a six-member committee. We will go to them and clear our stand. We will tell them that we are not a hurdle to the Kashmir issue,” he added.