SRINAGAR: More than 300 migrant Kashmiri Pandit employees recruited under PM’s job package and posted in the militancy-hit Valley have left Kashmir and returned to Jammu after the spurt in targeted killings.
Jagti Tenement Committee Jammu president Shadi Lal told this newspaper that fear has gripped the Pandit employees after the recent targeted killings.
Shadi Lal said over 300 Pandits recruited under the PM’s package have left Kashmir. He said most of those who returned to Jammu were living in rented accommodation in the Valley.
He said the arrivals from the Valley are picking up with each passing day.
In view of security apprehensions among Pandit and minority community employees, the J&K government has ordered that all the Pandit and minority community members posted in the Valley will be shifted to secured locations in the district headquarters by June 6.
However, the Pandit employees have rejected the proposal. A Pandit employee Amit Raina (name changed) told this newspaper that many Pandit employees left for Jammu on Thursday and others would leave in the coming days.
“Seventy per cent of PM package employees posted in Srinagar left for Jammu today and the remaining would leave in the next few days,” he said.
“Kashmiri Pandits are forced to leave due to failed administration and policies of Central Government implemented through Honble LG Kashmir (sic),” tweeted Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS). It said the PM package employees in Mattan have requested the district officials of Anantnag to provide them security till Banihal on Friday as they will be mass migrating to Jammu.
The protesters were carrying placards in support of their demand and pictures of their colleague Rajni Bala, a school teacher who was shot dead by terrorists at a school in south Kashmir's Kulgam district on Tuesday, and chanted slogans demanding relocation.
The march was carried out from Press Club to Ambedkar Chowk.
Assembled under the banner of "All Jammu-based reserved categories employees association', the protesters said they will not resume their duties as the government has 'failed' to stop targeted killings and provide a secure atmosphere to them."
"Nearly 8,000 employees from different districts of Jammu are working in Kashmir under inter-district transfer policy and we are not going to return and resume our duties in the present atmosphere. We are serving there for the last 15 years but are feeling insecure and tense in view of the spurt in the targeted killings," Ramesh Chand, a teacher posted in south Kashmir's Anantnag district, told reporters.
He said they have also come to pay homage to Bala and demand the government to ensure free education to her minor daughter and secure a government job for her.
"We are frustrated by the deteriorating security situation as nobody, including Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs are safe there. Anyone can become a victim of terrorists anytime," he said and referred to the latest killing of bank manager Vijay Kumar from Rajasthan in Kulgam district on Thursday.
Another employee Anjana Bala, a teacher posted in north Kashmir's Kupwara district, said, "We do not need government accommodation or promotion, we only want our transfer from the valley as providing security to each employee is not possible."
"There is no safer place in the valley and we are not ready to accept the government proposal of relocation within the valley," she said, adding they have never faced any problem from the locals who have always supported them.
She said if the government can abolish decade-old Article 370 in August 2019, what stops them from making minor changes in the transfer policy and relocating them to their home districts.
"We did not support the people of Kashmir who were against the revocation of Article 370. They were right and today we regret our decision as nothing changed on the ground except that we had lost the special status," she said.
Another teacher said they have gone there to earn their livelihood and not to settle there.
"The government is saying that they will relocate us to safer places but even after that if something untoward happens, who will be responsible. Today a bank manager was shot dead inside his secured office, while recently a Kashmiri pandit employee was gunned down in his office chamber," he said.
He said they have lost faith in the administration and will not return to the valley to become scapegoats.
Meanwhile, Panun Kashmir and IkkJutt Jammu on Thursday condemned the unabated killings of Hindus in Kashmir and demanded that they be immediately shifted to safety.
Panun Kashmir is an organisation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits while Ikkjutt Jammu advocates separate Jammu statehood.
The demand comes in the wake of a spate of killings of migrants and non-Muslim Kashmiris in the valley.
On Thursday, a bank employee from Rajasthan was shot dead by terrorists in Kulgam district.
This was the eighth targeted killing in the Valley since May 1 and the third of a non-Muslim government employee.
In a joint statement, senior advocate Ankur Sharma, president of Ikkjutt Jammu and Ajay Chrungoo, chairman of Panun Kashmir lambasted the BJP-led government at the Centre for trivialising the ground situation in the valley to the loss of the people particularly the Hindus.
"We unequivocally condemn the unabated Hindu killings in Kashmir. The Hindu employees of Kashmir should be immediately shifted to safety in Jammu," the statement said.
"We have once again witnessed the bone chilling 11th genocidal killing in the last 9 months of one more Hindu employee Vijay Kumar working in a Bank at Kulgam", it said.
They said that the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir is inevitable.
"Jammu has to be separated as a state and Kashmir divided further into two to create a safe domain for victims of genocide namely Panun Kashmir for reversal of Hindu genocide and permanent rehabilitation of Hindus," they said.
(With PTI Inputs)