‘Don’t Allow Pakistani Terrorists In Kashmir…’: Firebrand Dutch Leader Wilders’ Message To India After Reasi Attack

Geert Wilders, who heads the Netherlands’ right-wing PVV Freedom Party, reacted on Monday to the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district on Sunday where nine people died – mostly pilgrims from Uttar Pradesh – when terrorists opened fire at them.

“Don’t allow Pakistani terrorists in the Kashmir Valley to kill Hindus.

Protect your people India!” Wilders’ said in a post on social media site X.

Wilders on several occasions has highlighted the issue of terrorism in Pakistan and has highlighted the plight of Hindus in both Muslim-majority Pakistan and Bangladesh.

He also backed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s former spokesperson Nupur Sharma after she got embroiled in a controversy after she allegedly made derogatory comments about Prophet Muhammad. He held a telephonic conversation with her earlier this year and called her “a symbol of freedom, not only for India but for the whole free world”.

For years, Wilders has lived under police protection due to numerous death threats resulting from his outspoken remarks against Islam. According to a Sky News report, Wilders has relocated from one safe house to another for nearly 20 years.

“I have received numerous fatwas from Pakistan and Arab Imams, but I am not afraid,” he said last year.

Wilders’ party had been riding high in the polls since his shock triumph at national elections last year saw it force its way into a coalition government for the first time.

Voters in The Netherlands on Thursday boosted the party of anti-immigration eurosceptic Geert Wilders into second place at EU elections, an exit poll showed, after predictions of big far-right gains across the bloc at the four-day ballot.

However, estimates based on most of the votes counted confirmed exit polls that showed a Labour/GreenLeft combination was set to have won eight seats, slightly ahead of the anti-immigration party of Geert Wilders’ six seats.

Meanwhile, authorities identified the nine victims of the deadly terror attack on a bus carrying pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district. Among the victims are four natives of Rajasthan, including a two-year-old boy, and three from Uttar Pradesh.

Ten people with gunshot wounds are among the 41 pilgrims — mostly from Uttar Pradesh — undergoing treatment in three hospitals of Jammu and Reasi districts, officials said. Terrorists opened fire at the bus carrying pilgrims in Reasi district around 6.10 pm on Sunday, killing nine and injuring several.

The 53-seater bus, on its way from the Shiv Khori temple to Katra, veered off the road following the barrage of gunfire and fell into a deep gorge near the Teryath village of the Poni area.