Kishtwar victims deprived of relief till date: Gupta

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 29: Raising many eye brows over the providing of little relief to the victims of communal frenzy of Kishtwar, the former Union Minister and MLA, Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta has expressed surprise that not even the looted weapons and ammunition from the local gun house have been fully recovered.
In a statement, Prof. Gupta said that about three months have passed that there was loot and plunder. Large number of shops and houses were attacked. Many shopkeepers were rendered destitute. Heavy machine was employed to break open the shutters. But it was intriguing that victims are still waiting for relief and the whole issue has been made complex on the plea of completion of certain formalities. This, he added, is resulting in more problems and agony for the suffering lot.
Prof. Gupta regretted that not to say of recovering the looted property, even the large number of arms ammunition still remain at the hands of hooligans. In this regard he referred to the written answer by the Government to his question in the recent session of the State Assembly. In the answer it was given that 41 guns including 9 double barrel and 32 single barrel, in addition to 1198 rounds and 1250 grams gun powder and some other articles were looted by the miscreants. Out of which the police have recovered 24 guns and 50 cartridges.  As many as 17 guns including 12 bore double barrel and 11 single barrel, in addition to 1148 cartridges are yet to be recovered.
He said it is a serious matter that such a large number of weapons are still in the hands of mischief mongers.