foeticide. The Women Panthers have called for a 33% reservation of seats for women in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. Prof. Bhim Singh who is locally known as Sher-e-Jammu (Lion of Jammu) is the party's Chief Patron and served as the Panthers Party chairman for 30 years till 2012, when his nephew Harsh Dev Singh became Chairman. Balwant Singh Mankotia has served as party's state President since 2010. The Panthers Party has been a long-time advocate of a sovereign statehood for Palestine. It strongly condemned Israel in reaction to the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid that left nine humanitarian aid workers dead, and called on the Indian central government to support Palestinians inside and outside the UN. In 2014, Panthers Party activists burned an effigy of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at protests held in New Delhi, calling for UN intervention under Chapter VII, and terming Israel's actions in Gaza as "genocide." By December 2015, the Panthers Party's membership drive had reached a target of 100,000 members. Panthers Party, has fielded candidates in other Indian states, including Delhi in 2015, Uttarakhand in 2012, and in 2007 contested all MLA seats in Himachal Pradesh. In 2017, Panthers Party contested elections in Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh, and reconstituted its branch in Rajasthan, headed by Ashok Bapna. Panthers Party branch in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is led by state president Naresh Ambedkar. In 2017, Qatar's state-funded Al Jazeera, and Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency, labelled the Panthers Party as a right-wing Hindu nationalist political party, for its billboard poster campaign, calling for an expulsion of Burmese Rohingya Muslim refugees from Jammu. Bhim Singh Era Founding The party was founded by Bhim Singh in 1982 as a split from the Indian National Congress. At the time, Bhim Singh was a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly with the Congress party. Bhim Singh had differences with the Congress party's alliance with the National Conference party of Sheikh Abdullah. In particular, the Panther's Party was founded in reaction to Sheikh Abdullah's Resettlement Act. The manifesto of the party focused on secular, nationalist and democratic principles, while seeking to respect the diversity of cultures and religions in the state including Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir. A month after its formation, in April 1982, the name of the party was questioned in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly by Chief Minister, Sheikh Abdullah who had