Anirudh Parihar
Born on 6th Nov, 1965 in Parihar family of then Kishtwar Tehsil younger among siblings of five, Anil Parihar got his all education in Kishtwar Town, as his father was a Manager in Forest Lesse Firm extracting timber in hinter areas of Tehsil Kishwar. Soon after dissolution of Private Firms, Anil Parihar concentrated on the situation arising out of financial crunch, he established a Stationery and News Shop in the name and style of M/s Ajeet News Agency in 1983 and this shop soon became a business hub of the area and helped the whole family of Anil Parihar to come out of the financial crunch. Since he was socially active from his early childhood, he started taking part in various social activities. Since Hindus of Kishtwar had major inclination towards Right Wing Political parties and Uncle of Anil Parihar Ex. M.L.C. Thakur Sewa Ram Parihar was also active leader of then Bhatriya Jansangh, it naturally attracted Mr Parihar towards the Shakhas of R.S.S. active in Kishwar. Mr Parihar also took part in Kishtwar College Agitation in a very tender age and got arrested for 15 days and was lodged in District Jail Bhaderwah. This encouraged him to have more participation in social and political activities of Kishtwar. As a result, the political stalwarts of Kishtwar namely, Sewa Ram Parihar, Man Mohan Gupta and Chander Ji Gupta acknowledged his political acumen and started grooming him in their political guidance to become a leader of the B.J.P. in coming days.
After the advent of terrorism in District Kishtwar in 1990, Anil Parihar became more active in political arena and started open opposition of militancy related activities in Kishtwar which later turned into ethnic killings of minorities in Kishtwar. Killings of Santosh Thakur, Satish Bhandari, Ruchir Kumar Koul, Swami Raj Katal, Mohan Singh Thakur, put Anil Parihar on the target list of terrorists, as every opposing voice against terrorism was to be silenced by the terrorists. Anil Parihar along with Daya Krishan Kotwal and other prominent nationalists launched ‘Doda Bachao Andolan’ in which the demands for establishment of VDCs, DDCs was raised in State as well as at National platforms. The whole Doda Bachao Andolan was patronized by Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta Ji, who was also the President of BJP State Unit. Various massacres by terrorists took place in erstwhile District Doda viz, Chapnari, Barshalla, Cherzi, Kulhand led to more active participation of Anil Parihar to console the effected families and persuade them not to migrate from their respective areas, which otherwise would lead to mass migration of minority people on the lines of Kashmiri migrants. These activities of Anil Parihar opposing the terrorism openly were becoming an irritant for the sympathizers of militancy in the area, as such, life threats were openly hurled on him. Whereas, at political front, Anil Parihar was in limelight of BJP State Unit, he was elected as President of State BJYM in the year 2003 and more and more important positions in State Unit of BJP. Anil Parihar, who owing to his assignments in State and National politics was out of Kishtwar town for some years and when he again came back to his native place at Kishtwar to serve his people and continued his endeavor for betterment of downtrodden people of society, he was in the hit-list of terrorists and the sympathizers of terrorism. They were of firm belief that his existence in the political arena of State BJP is always obstacle in their anti-national designs. As such, raising of his voice in favour of abrogation of Art. 370 and Art. 35A and against the anti-social and anti-national elements, who misbehaved with Mata Machail Yatris, the clips of which became viral on social media gave a revision to the previous hit-list of terrorists and led to his killing on 01st Nov, 2018 along with his elder brother, who was accompanying him that night. Truly, it was a great loss not only to Doda region but to the country as well.
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