Music artist Ankit Love and Prof Bhim Singh, founder of the Panthers Party were attacked yesterday by Al-Qaeda terrorists on route from Srinagar to Jammu. The father son duo had arrived earlier in the day to Srinagar via helicopter, to meet Panthers Party leaders Frooq Ahamd and Arif Ali, after conducting a rally in the Baramulla district campaigning aggressively to abolish Article 35A and for the reunion of India and Pakistan as the solution to the Kashmir conflict.Al-Qaeda terrorists ambushed Ankit Love and Prof. Bhim after their bulletproof Ambassador motor car broke down, due to a faulty axel, in the Kashmir valley. A gun fight ensued between the terrorists and the 22 Indian army soldiers guarding Prof. Bhim and Ankit Love travelling under Z security cover.In the skirmish Prof. Bhim was non-fatally wounded by a bullet grazing his left arm. Prof. Bhim’s PSO Sudesh Singh, bravely defend the Professor and shot three of the terrorists before the Al-Qaeda forces retreated into the Kashmiri mountains.
Despite the encounter Prof. Bhim and Ankit Love continued on to the Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir, to lead a rally of the Panthers Party, calling for the immediate abolishment of Article 35A. Prof. Bhim stated that Article 35A had discriminated against the civil liberties of the subjects of Jammu and Kashmir, and was in contravention to the secular Constitution of India, which enshrined the human rights of all citizens.Prof. Bhim, recalled when he and his wife Jay Mala, a senior advocate of the Supreme Court, were arrested in 1977 and held in prison without trial for over 3 years due to the ramifications of Article 35A. This despite Prof. Bhim being an elected member of the government at the time.