As the government instructs Kashmiri pandits working under the Prime Minister’s employment package in Kashmir to return to their postings, Congress today accused the government of making these employees vulnerable and pushing them into psychological distress.
“Kashmiri Pandit migrants and Jammu-based Hindu employees working in Kashmir should be relocated to Jammu without any delay until the situation in Kashmir becomes normal. Since the L.G administration has completely failed to provide them any safety or security and have made these employees more vulnerable to psychological distress, forcing them to resume their duties is not only heartless but also sadistic,” Congress spokesperson advocate Deepika Pushkar Nath said here.
“These employees suffer and the Lt Governor gets an opportunity to showcase it as an achievement. This administration in the recent past has withheld the salaries of these employees who left their duties fearing for their lives. We demand that the salaries of the employees be released immediately and no pressure tactic be used against them to resume their duty,” she added.
“A hit list has been recently issued by TRF. I ask the L.G. to please explain how can these employees go back to their duties in such circumstances. While he doesn’t lose a minute to showcase his fairytale normalcy to his masters in Delhi, the bubble of his lies bursts factually when these lists are being published every other day,” the Congress spokesperson said.
Early December the TRF, which police describe as the Lashkar-e-Toiba offshoot, released a letter with a list of Kashmiri Pandit employees working in the Valley, vowing to continue targeting them. The alleged list which had gone viral has the names and details of 56 Pandits, appointed under the special PM employment package in the Valley.
Most of the employees have already fled the Valley after a spate of targeted killings over the last year. They have been holding protests in Jammu, demanding their relocation till the situation improves in Kashmir. Some of the employees, however, are still in the Valley.
“Our party is fully convinced that BJP and its LG in Jammu and Kashmir have made it a matter of their ego and if they made these employees return to Jammu their fake extravaganza of normalcy will be left exposed. It bothers them the most. I want to remind them that it’s not a political issue for us, it’s a matter of our life and death, we are fed up with our politicization all over the country,” Nath said.
“The BJP and the LG should take this into account that none of us want their obituaries, ex-gratia relief, or condemnations after our killings. We demand a peaceful place to live which is something they should strive to provide us instead of this hogwash of “normalcy.” The UT administration should be vigilant instead of waiting for the killing of the Kashmiri Pandits,” the spokesperson said.
