‘Time to move away’: Fear, anxiety in Kashmiri Pandit camps

After days of protests over what they say is the administration’s “failure” to guard them from focused attacks, Kashmiri Pandits employed in the valley underneath the Prime Minister’s rehabilitation package determined on Thursday to name off their agitation, expressing frustration over authentic “inaction”.

The Media spoke to a number of Kashmiri Pandits employed with the administration and housed in the two essential secured camps, at Sheikhpora in Budgam and Haal in Pulwama. What is palpable is the gathering experience of despair and anxiety. After the string of killings focused on minorities and outsiders, many say they are actively exploring preferences backyard the Valley.

“We are all moving again to Jammu,” said Amit Koul, 40, a authorities employee at the forefront of the latest protests, and a resident of the Sheikhpora camp. “I have already left the camp with 5 of my colleagues,” he said.

Koul said that due to the fact that Rahul Bhat, an employee working beneath the PM’s bundle in the Revenue department, was killed inner his office in Chadoora, Budgam on May 12, they had been urging the authorities that they be transferred to Jammu.

On Thursday, camp residents eliminated the protest tent from the gates — in a sign that, some of them admitted, showed lack of any progress. “There is some resistance from neighborhood authorities. They even tried to shut the gates in the morning. Some households have already left however they are doing so discreetly so that they are no longer stopped,” said Ashwini Pandita, a resident of the Sheikhpora camp.

Another Kashmiri Pandit employee, who has already left for Jammu, stated that “in Kashmir, there is no area protected for minorities now”.

At the Haal camp in South Kashmir, about 45 households remain constrained to their premises and countless of them stated that they are prepared to move. “We are all consulting every different on when we may want to leave. The consensus among all personnel is that we have to leave. We can’t proceed to risk our lives,” stated Arvind Pandita, a resident of the Haal camp.

Asked whether they would consider a temporary move, he said: “It does now not seem like things are getting better so we will go with our youth and all belongings.”

In March 2021, in a written reply to a question in Parliament, the Ministry of Home Affairs had mentioned that out of 6,000 sanctioned posts, almost 3,800 migrant candidates have back to Kashmir over the past few years to take up authorities jobs under the PM package. After the abrogation of Article 370, 520 migrant candidates lower back to Kashmir to take up such jobs, it said.

Kashmir Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, K Pandurang Pole, may want to now not be reached for comment.

On May 18, Pole advised the heads of a range of government departments to make sure that personnel from the Kashmiri Pandit neighborhood are now not posted in “vulnerable areas” but given postings in district headquarters.

On May 23, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha visited the Sheikhpora camp, where Rahul Bhat’s household was staying at the time, and certain residents that their worries would be addressed. The administration additionally appointed nodal officers to address “grievances of personnel — PM package/ migrant/ SC/ ST/ Rajput and others” in Kulgam, Budgam and Anantnag districts.

By editor

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