Terming the killing a "cowardly act", the protesters said assurances given by the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir administration to ensure the safety of minorities in the Valley have proved to be false.
The 'mediation' by the United States from behind the scene on the diplomatic track appears to be once again working, which calls on both Delhi and Islamabad to show restraint and pull back from a military confrontation, notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Called Herath, this was the first major Hindu festival being celebrated in the Valley after Jammu and Kashmir was changed into a Union territory last year.
While a verified Twitter handle of the Information and Public Relations department of Shopian claimed that the news about leaving of 'Kashmiri non-migrant Hindu population' was 'baseless', Ashwani Kumar Bhat, whose brother Puran Krishan Bhat was gunned down by terrorists on October 16, told reporters in Jammu that he has migrated and will never return to the Valley.
'No words can heal the wounds of a mother who lost her child, or a friend who lost their companion. But we must speak, we must feel, and we must remember.'
The appeal by the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) came after a delegation led by its president Farooq Abdullah met Jammu and Kashmiri Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at the Raj Bhavan in Srinagar.
The protesters first assembled at the Sheikhpora area of Budgam district, in central Kashmir, and then tried to proceed towards the airport but were stopped by a posse of police personnel, they said.
The victim was identified as Sanjay Sharma, a resident of the Achan area in the south Kashmir district, they said, adding that the incident took place at around 11 am.
'I have only seen conflict since I was born. I want it to stop. I am longing for peace.'
Protests against the killing of a Hindu school teacher in Kulgam continued to rock several parts of Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts of Jammu and Kashmir on the second consecutive day on Wednesday.
The Kashmiri Hindu community despite homelessness and horrendous ethnic cleansing has survived and will survive. It is the tenacity to weather any storm and belief in its values and morals that has kept the Kashmiri Hindu alive, says Lalit Koul.
'There is no peace in the Kashmir Valley.'
'Violence is the only answer to violence.'
A government employee belonging to the Kashmir Pandit community was shot dead by suspected militants at his office in the Chadoora area of Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, officials said in Srinagar.
Rajni Bala (36) of Samba in Jammu region sustained injuries when terrorists fired at her in Gopalpora area of Kulgam where she was posted as a teacher
'The whole Kashmiri population is seemed to be a suspect community. This status is not good.'
Terrorists have stepped up attacks in the Kashmir valley over the past week.
As a spate of targeted killings of minorities rock Kashmir, a Kashmiri Pandits' organisation on Friday said some employees from the community, who were provided government jobs under a rehabilitation package in 2010-11, have started moving to Jammu quietly fearing for their life, alleging the administration was unable to provide then a secure environment.
The Kashmiri Pandit Sabha threatened to intensify its agitation, if the government did not stop threatening to withhold the salaries of KP employees and forcing them to come back to the valley, where they are under mortal threat from terrorists.
'Sheikh Abdullah ruled the state with secular values. Post 1953, when he was sacked, corruption took over governance.'
In view of increased threat perception, the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Wednesday decided to immediately post Kashmiri migrants employed under prime minister's special package and other employees belonging to the Jammu division in "secured locations'' in the Valley by June 6, officials sources said.
Kashmiri Pandit employees on Monday threatened to appeal to international human rights organisations for asylum if the central government failed to relocate them from the Valley in the wake of attacks on minorities.
'In both places the minority was disproportionately powerful.' 'Few people acknowledge it but at its core the Tamil Nadu problem between the Brahmins and the rest was one of power.' 'In Kashmir the Hindus held most of the land and the accompanying political power, while the Muslims were the peasants and powerless,' notes T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
Bala and Kumar were transferred to another school in a safer area only on Monday night. Tuesday was supposed to be the last day for Bala at her old school.
'Article 370 is now dug 70 feet deep in the ground. It cannot come out.'
'There is a problem with the rise of a popular view that sees Kashmir through the prism of the larger, chronic Hindu-Muslim tensions.' 'By redefining the Kashmir problem simplistically in Hindu-Muslim terms could end up keeping Kashmir but losing most Kashmiris,' says Shekhar Gupta.
His remarks sparked a controversy with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan targeting the Indian government over its Kashmir policy.
Holding placards and banners, rival Kashmiri groups staged protests outside the United Nations on Friday afternoon during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to the plenary session of the UN General Assembly.
Rajni Bala, a government school teacher who was killed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district, was cremated in Samba on Wednesday, amid an outpouring of grief and anger.
It was exactly 20 years ago on this day, when Kashmiri Hindus were driven out of their homeland. From 700,000, there are only about 2,000 Kashmiri Hindus left in the valley now, says Lalit Koul.
Even as its demand for disenfranchisement of Muslims community has evoked sharp reactions from political parties, the Shiv Sena on Tuesday sought to know why the issue of voting rights of Kashmiri Pandits has not been raised in the same manner.
Asserting that religion should not used to get political mileage, Azad said whoever takes refuge in religion in politics is weak.
Hurriyat in touch with Kashmiri Pandits
'The larger narrative doing the rounds was anti-Hindu, anti-India.' 'Despite the affinity, one could feel the lurking hostility.'
Turned away by the Foreign Correspondents Club and the Press Club of India, The Kashmir Files director Vivek Agnihotri says he has been banned "undemocratically" and will go ahead with a press conference at a five-star hotel on Thursday.
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