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Jammu: Kashmiri Pandit employees suspend their protest after 310 days
At least 5,000 people belonging to the Kashmiri Pandit community were recruited under the PM’s employment package in Kashmir as a part of their rehabilitation plan
The Kashmiri Pandit employees, who had been agitating for the past 310 days to press for their demand of relocation to safer environs of Jammu following targeted killings in Kashmir, on Saturday suspended their protest.
At least 5,000 people belonging to the Pandit community were recruited under the PM’s employment package in Kashmir as a part of their rehabilitation plan.
“We have suspended our agitation for now because we want to hold talks with the administration. We protested for 310 days and didn’t even celebrate our festivals, but the administration didn’t listen to us,” said a female employee, who wished to remain anonymous.
She said the Pandit employees were not ready to return to Kashmir under the prevailing security scenario. “If the lieutenant governor has any plan for us, he should discuss it and instil a sense of security,” she added.
She said that the “LG’s doors were never opened for Pandit employees” and their salaries have been not been released for the past eight to nine months.
Akshay Kachroo, another employee, said, “The core committee decided to suspend the agitation after unanimous consensus among the employees. We were choked financially and our families suffered a lot. We are now surrendering before the administration.”
“The government has all the powers. We are now waiting for its response,” he added.
Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandit government employees had fled the Valley following targeted killings of members of the minority community.
However, the government refused to accept their demand of relocation to Jammu.
On Monday, the Pandit employees had assembled outside the relief commissioner’s office and staged a protest against the killing of Sanjay Sharma, 40, a bank ATM guard, who was shot dead by terrorists in the Achan area of a south Kashmir district a day before.
The employees had arrived in Jammu in May last year following the killing of their colleagues Rahul Bhat and Rajni Bala.
While Bhat was shot dead inside his office at central Kashmir’s Budgam district on May 12, Bala, a schoolteacher, was gunned down in south Kashmir’s Kulgam on May 31, 2022.
