Kashmiri Pandits flee Valley fearing ‘return of the 1990s’ in the wake of targeted killings of minorities
Over 500 people have started leaving from different areas like Budgam, Anantnag and Pulwama, while others have abstained from attending offices.
Scores of panic-stricken Kashmiri pandits have started to leave the valley, quietly moving to Jammu in the wake of the recent targeted killings of Hindu and Sikh civilians by terrorists in the past week. This comes a day after two government school teachers were shot point-blank in the head – one a Kashmiri pandit and the other a Sikh, after an identification parade. Earlier this week, Kashmiri Pandit Makhan Lal Bindroo, a well-known pharmacist in the area was also murdered by militants.
Reportedly, over 500 people have started leaving from different areas like Budgam, Anantnag and Pulwama. Some non-Kashmir pandit families have also left. Even Sheikhpora – a locality that was exclusively established in the Budgam district in 2003 to bring back and rehabilitate pandits saw dozens of people vacating the area. The story is the same for other Pandit settlements, where families have left for Jammu.
While the administration and the regional political parties made vehement appeals to Pandits not to consider any idea of migration and even assured them of “providing full security”, the efforts seem to be going in vain given the environment of fear that has been created over the events of the past days. The atmosphere of fear is being fuelled by rumours that terrorists have drawn up a ‘hit list’, and many more could be targeted.
Members of the Vessu migrant camp in Qazigund area of south Kashmir, which houses around 380 families, in a memorandum to the authorities said, “In a state of extreme fear and panic, we bring to your kind notice that the whole of the minority populace of Kashmiri Pandits dispensing their duties in Kashmir feels scared of the emerging grave, the anti-minority situation in Kashmir.”
“Due to recent brutal and gruesome selective killings of members of the Hindu community, all employees who belong to the community feel insecure and frightened. The emerging situation reminds us of the similar situation that of the 1990s decade, which led to the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits,” the memorandum further said, adding the same loss of lives cannot be afforded by the community again.
As per a Kashmiri Pandits’ organisation, employees from the community, who were provided government jobs under a rehabilitation package in 2010-11 have abstained from attending offices while many others have gone on a 10-day leave. Several schools, especially those located in volatile pockets in the Valley, have offered Pandit employees 10 days of leave period, an official said.
“I am frightened by the killings of innocent Pandits. We are shifting some of our family members to Jammu for the time being,” a Srinagar-based Kashmiri Pandit teacher said.
A 51-year-old Kashmiri Pandit, who moved out from Shopian with his family, said, “We had not left the valley even in the worst times in the 1990s but the targeted killing of the minority communities now has forced us to migrate from here.”
District commissioners have asked the Pandits living in designated enclaves in parts of the Valley to restrict their movement for the time being and avoid travelling to volatile pockets.
Sanjay Tickoo, who heads the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), a body representing the voices of those who did not migrate from the Valley in the 1990s, said, “Neither those who stayed back since the 1990s nor those who returned to the Valley are feeling secure. Many are leaving out of fear. It may seem invisible but migration is going on and I was anticipating this. We had requested an appointment from the lieutenant governor’s office in June, but have not been given time till now.”
Meanwhile, Home Minister Amit Shah is set to have a high-level meet with Jammu and Kashmir LG Manoj Sinha today in Delhi to review the security situation in Kashmir.
