177 Kashmiri Pandit teachers transferred to ‘safer places’
Pandits deputed in the Valley under the PM package termed the move ‘eyewash’ and threatened to intensify their protests
SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Saturday transferred 177 Kashmiri Pandit teachers to “safer places” amid a surge of targeted attacks in the Valley, but the move stoked a controversy after the transfer list was leaked on social media.
“The government has already started posting employees to safer places,” said a senior official from the J&K administration, requesting anonymity.
The Union territory’s education department posted the Kashmiri Pandit teachers to different places they consider “safe” for these employees in the Valley, the official added.
However, Kashmiri Pandits deputed in the Valley under the PM package — which was launched for the rehabilitation of the community in 2008 — termed the move an “eye wash” and threatened to intensify
their protests.
“This is just shuffling in the name of safer places. There is no safe place in Kashmir. Rahul Bhat was killed in the office of magistrate. Is there a more secure place than the magistrate’s office?” asked Sandeep Kumar, a member of migrant Pandit employees association. “We are going to start intense agitation in Jammu also.”
Since the killing of government employee Rahul Bhat on May 12, Kashmiri Pandits have
been protesting at transit accommodations in different places across Kashmir demanding relocation from Valley until security situation improves there. They have not joined their duties while hundreds of employees and their family members have already shifted to Jammu. The protesting employees also sought Lt Governor Manoj Sinha’s intervention in the matter, but the meeting remained “inconclusive”.
On Saturday, the transfer list of Kashmiri Pandit employees was circulated on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded action against the officials responsible for the leak, saying it has made these employees vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
“Making the transfer list public on social media platforms is a big security breach as terrorists now have a clear idea who is posted where,” BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur said in a statement.
He urged the government to take strong note of the leak and take action against officials who made the list public at a time when targeted killings are taking place in the Valley.
“The government should act against officials who are involved in it,” Thakur said. “The government is taking serious steps for the protection of Kashmiri Pandits, but some officials are playing a spoil sport.”
A surge of targeted attacks in the Valley has prompted some Kashmiri Pandits employed under the Prime Minister’s rehabilitation package to start returning to Jammu with some families saying they feared a repeat of the mass exodus of Pandits from the Valley in the 90s.
On Thursday, a 26-year-old bank employee from Rajasthan and a 17-year-old labourer from Bihar were shot dead by terrorists in Kashmir’s Kulgam and Budgam, respectively marking the 13th targeted killing of civilians in the Valley since March.
The attacks raised questions over the security of more than 4,000 Kashmiri Pandits, who have been living in transit camps in various parts of Kashmir after being given government jobs under a special employment package launched in 2008.