Fear again grips Kashmiri Pandits amid targeted attacks
NEW DELHI: He is not willing to disclose his name or even mention the name of the place where he is currently stationed. He is a Kashmiri Pandit posted in the Valley and he is willing to give up his job and leave, to save his life. A child’s voice is audible in the background, but he is not willing to talk about his family either. The only constant in his life right now are the incessant calls he gets from his parents, based in Jammu.
He is one of 6,000 Kashmiri Pandits who were given jobs under the PM’s Rehabilitation package, announced in 2009, to enable members of the minority community to return to the Valley. The killing of Rahul Bhat inside the tehsil office in Budgam’s Chadoora on May 12, has left Kashmiri Pandits fearing for their lives. “The militants knew exactly which room to find him in,” a security official said on condition of anonymity. J&K’s LG Manoj Sinha acknowledged that the attack was a targeted one. Protests have rocked the Valley since Bhat’s killing and the employees have refused to resume work. They are on strike at various places and have been sending “mass resignations” to the LG’s office and to the home ministry in Delhi.
Ironically, the ongoing protests since May 12 are the only ones the Valley has seen since August 2019, when Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was altered. Anger amongst the Pandits mounted after the administration tried to break up one protest by lobbing teargas shells. The LG has also been forced to announce a separate enquiry into the tear-gassing incident.
Sinha has now announced that all employees will be posted at secure places in district and tehsil headquarters, but representatives of the employees say that is just not possible.
Sandeep Kumar, a founding member of the PM’s Employee Co-ordination Committee, a teacher himself, has not gone to school since May 12. He stays in a rented house in Anantnag, in South Kashmir, and used to travel 30km to reach the school. “How will my safety or that of other employees be ensured?” he asks. “How will the administration ensure my wife’s safety? She has to go out for groceries.”
Ranjan Zotshi, the committee’s convener has raised several questions, but none of them have been answered. An employee with the social welfare department, Zotshi has to make several field trips to meet senior citizens, pensioners and victims of militancy. “The government is using Pandits to showcase a sense of normalcy. Actually, it is just making sacrificial lambs out of us,” he says.
An ultimatum
All 6,000 employees and their families face a similar predicament. The committee is now insisting that two of its demands be met. It wants the administration to revoke the bond all employees were forced to sign before they got jobs. The bond clearly says that they will have to serve in the Valley till they retire or that they will be terminated from service. The second demand is that they be posted anywhere in any part of the country, except in the Valley.
Security is a real issue. While some employees are housed in the half dozen transit camps, a majority are scattered all over the Valley and have rented homes.
Under threat
Over the past year, Kashmiri Pandits and migrant workers have been singled out and killed. HT, in October, reported how militants were being given specific names and being asked to target non-Muslim residents.
At the time, the administration had been able to secure some individuals whose names appeared in intelligence intercepts.
Fear has once again gripped members of the minority community.
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said no member of the community was attacked either during her tenure or that of NC’s Omar Abdullah, in 2010.
HT reached out to the LG’s office for a comment on the matter but did not get one immediately.
What will the employees ultimately decide? The next five days may or may not provide an answer to what clearly is a very difficult predicament.