PROTESTS OVER PANDIT’S KILLING INTENSIFY IN J&K
Kashmiri Pandit employees seek their safety and relocation outside Kashmir
Widespread protests over the killing of a 36-year-old revenue official from the Kashmiri Pandit community continued across Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday as scores of Pandits held demonstrations outside transit camps and blocked main roads, demanding their relocation to safer places outside Kashmir valley.
A delegation of the Kashmiri Pandits on Saturday also called on former chief minister and president of the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), Farooq Abdullah, at his residence to seek protection for the community.
SRINAGAR/JAMMU: Protests escalated in Kashmir against the Thursday’s killing of a government employee belonging to the migrant Kashmiri Pandit community by militants.
Scores of Kashmiri Pandit employees, appointed under the Prime Minister’s employment package, assembled at Press Colony in Srinagar and staged a protest seeking their safety and relocation outside the Valley.
Holding placards, they raised slogans against the J&K administration and the BJP. They were seeking an audience with Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
“This protest is being held by minority employees across Kashmir against the increasing graph of gruesome killings. If the situation is fine, then why is there a target killing of a particular section? Something surely is amiss,” said an employee at the protest.
Another protester said that the situation has worsened in the past 18 months. “In the 90s, we were told to flee otherwise we would be killed. Now we are first killed so that we are forced to run away from here. I have been here for the past five years and I think the condition has become worse. The administration is not ready to listen to us,” he said.
The protesters were part of the 4,000 Kashmiri Pandits, who have been living in transit camps in various parts of the Valley after they were given government jobs under the special package.
“We want our posting at safe and secure places,” said a protester. “All transit camps have become like detention centres. Nobody is allowed to come out,” he added.
Mild clash in Baramulla
Kashmiri Pandits and police clashed mildly after the former attempted to move out of their colony at Veerwan in Baramulla district on Saturday. They wanted to join the protests with their fellow community members in Srinagar.
“The situation is normal now. The pandits wanted to move out of the colony for a protest, which we did not allow,” a police official said.
Meanwhile in Srinagar’s Raj Bagh area, dozens of BJP leaders led by party spokesperson Altaf Thakur protested against the killings in Kashmir. “This protest is against Pakistan and the terrorists who don’t want the pandits to return as some had slowly started to come back to Valley. They are also frustrated by the huge tourist inflow in Kashmir,” Altaf said.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina also said that he, along with other senior BJP leaders, will meet J&K LG on Sunday to discuss and press for the security related issues of Kashmiri Pandits and other minorities in Valley.
J&K Congress, meanwhile, held a demonstration in Jammu against the targeted killings in Kashmir and criticised the BJP government for its failure to check such incidents.
Shiv Sena’s Jammu and Kashmir unit also warned the government against making Kashmiri Pandits “scapegoats” by deploying their youth in Kashmir, where terrorism was yet to die down completely and targeted killings continued unabated.
PAGD leaders to meet LG
Leaders of Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), including National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, held a meeting at former’s residence after a delegation of Kashmiri Pandit employees met them. PAGD leaders will be meeting LG Manoj Sinha to seek proper security for the migrant pandit employees.
“The migrant employees are very much in panic after the killing of Bhat. They want the PAGD leadership to take this issue with the LG Manoj Sinha. The PAGD has now sought an appointment with him,” its spokesperson MY Tarigami said.
Kashmiris may have their differences in terms of politics and parties, but in the current scenario, every Kashmiri will strive for the brotherhood which has been the beauty of its history and culture, he added.