Pulwama, Feb 26: A Pall of gloom descended in Achen village, Pulwama om Sunday morning, as terrorists fired at Sanjay Sharma in Achan village, Pulwama. Sharma, who was critically injured in the attack, was rushed to the hospital where he succumbed to injuries.
It was after a gap of 30 years that a second Pandit from Achan village fell to bullets .
“Janki Nath was the first Pandit from Achan who was shot dead in 1990 at a neighbouring village after kidnapping him,” villagers informed.
Sanjay Kumar Sharma, 45, s/o of Kashi Nath, and his wife, Sunita, left their home in Achan village, Pulwama district, South Kashmir, on Sunday morning.
Sanjay, a father of three children, was holding a file with numerous investigations and prescriptions. “He had been complaining of head ache for a couple of days,” Sanjay’s eldest brother, Bushan Lal, told Rising Kashmir, adding that he had a doctor’s appointment on the fateful day.
He claimed that Sanjay was barely a few yards from his house when he was shot by terrorists near a Jammu and Kashmir bank branch.
“His wife, who was accompanying him, had just gone into a neighbouring shop to buy socks when Sanjay was fired up on,” Achan village villagers reported, adding that he collapsed to the ground and his wife leaped over him screaming and crying.
Her frantic shouts aroused other residents, who hurried to the scene and assisted in getting him to the hospital, where he later succumbed , according to the locals.
According to the residents, the shooting occurred at 10:30 a.m.
“As they were shifting him into a sumo taxi, I provided some money to his wife believing Sanjay had fainted and they might need it,” Abdul Aziz, a local resident of Achan village, claimed, adding that he had no idea Sanjay had been shot.
“He used to faint,” Aziz explained.
Bushan Lal explained that his younger brother had fractured his skull bone in a car accident years ago.
“”He underwent surgery, and physicians inserted a metal plate in his skull to mend his fractured bone,” Bushan Lal explained, adding that he used to complain of recurring head discomfort.
He has been fainting on and off since then. Sanjay is survived by his widow and three children, two daughters and a son. The oldest daughter is ten, the middle daughter is six, and the son is three years old.
” Sanjay has three brothers and is the youngest son of his parents. He shared a two-story house with his brothers. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in commerce as well as a B.ED, or Bachelor of Education.
Yet, he was unable to obtain a government job before reaching the maximum age limit for applying for employment.
His brother stated that he taught at a private school in a nearby village for almost three years before taking a job as a security guard at a bank branch, earning roughly Rs. 5000 per month.
Abdul Hamid remembered Sanjay as a humble person who was busy in his own affairs.He was fighting poverty and had earned a bank security guard job after lot of struggle.
The deceased worked as an ATM guard in a bank but was not reporting to duty of late following an earlier spate of terror attacks on his community members, he said, adding that a year ago authorities established a guard post within the premises of the lone Pandit family at Achen to secure them.
The villagers informed Rising Kashmir that 75 Pandit families were living in Achan.
“ Around 50 of the Pandit families migrated in 1989 while as some had migrated earlier,” the residents said, adding that Late Kashi Nath’s family resisted migration and have been living as lonely Pandit family of Achan village.
Bushan Lal stated that they stayed due to financial constraints.
“What we own is our land, which we produce with paddy,” he explained, adding that migration had an uncertain and unforeseeable future at the time.
He stated that they had never perceived any security danger, but now that his younger brother has been killed, he is feeling insecure.
“We have to tend to our paddy fields, we have to move out, and security will not always walk with us,” he explained.
He remembered his deceased brother as a helpless poor man.“He had struggled hard to build a new house, it is still under construction,” he said , adding before he could walk into the new house killers snatched him away from them.
People flocked to Sanjay’s home to grieve his death as soon as word of his killing spread.
Sanjay’s wife was sobbing alongside her husband’s body, which was being kept in a hearse across the courtyard.
She was surrounded by many women, largely from the Majority community, who were cajoling her.
“I would not have let you step out if I had known you would abandon me forever,” Sanjay’straumatised wife was heard sobbing.
Abul Hamid and other locals who had assembled at the residence of the victim family termed Sanjay’s killing as a heinous and unpardonable crime.
“ This is a crime against humanity,” they said, adding that they condemn the killing in the strongest words.
