Migrant Kashmiri Pandit employees leave Valley amid spate of targeted killings
Accuse govt of forcing employees to migrate en masse
Members of Awami Awaz Party stage a protest over the recent attacks on civilians in Srinagar. PTI
Samaan Lateef
Srinagar, June 3
The transit camps of migrant Kashmiri Pandits looked deserted on Friday as hundreds of fear-stricken employees escaped to Jammu in the dead of night on Thursday amidst a fresh spate of targeted civilian killings in Kashmir.
The Pandits accused the government of forcing the employees to migrate en masse.
“I, along with my family, left on Thursday night as no one is safe there,” said Ashwani Sadhu, an engineer, who, along with nearly 400 employees, was putting up at Sheikhpora transit camp in Budgam.
More than 80 per cent of employees at the Sheikpora camp left for Jammu, said Ashwini Pandita, an engineer at the PWD, Buildings and Roads.
"Only those stayed back who had to sort the issues of their schoolchildren. We are in touch with the school administrations to get approval for online classes or migration of children to Jammu schools,” Pandita said.
He said the government is happy with the migration of Kashmiri Pandits as they had no solution to the problem.
“According to senior police officials, it will take two to three years for normalcy in Kashmir to return. It seems the government is happy about our migration as it has failed to provide us security,” he said.
On Thursday, nearly 4,500 employees appointed under the PM’s special employment scheme for migrants dismantled the tents at the transit camps where they were protesting to seek relocation to Jammu amidst rising targeted killings in Kashmir.
“We demanded relocation or placement in a secured zone outside Kashmir. Our families had been disturbed because of the rise in targeted killings and we wanted the government to save us,” he said.
Two non-locals, including a bank manager from Rajasthan, were shot dead by militants in separate attacks in the Valley on Thursday, triggering a fresh wave of migration of Kashmiri Pandit employees.
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