There is a need for immediate steps to end the migration of Kashmiri Pandits. Just making movies and provoking their sentiments is not a solution to the Kashmir crisis. Amid an alarming spike in targeted killings in Kashmir, what the government did is they just ordered the transfer of 177 Kashmiri Pandit teachers posted in Srinagar to safer locations following demands to be relocated. Its high time that the government should spell out its policy for restoring normalcy in the union territory, rattled by a series of targeted terrorist killings. Emphasizing the need for greater sensitivity towards the people of Kashmir, he said, normalcy and peace cannot be brought there through propaganda. A lot of statesmanship is required to address the Kashmir issue, which is currently lacking. People are being killed in offices and even government offices are not secure.
The government should secure all affected people and their offices…and this has to be done in the next few days, as we do not want to hear that more innocents have died. Why do they have to always leave the valley and relocate somewhere, why can’t they live peacefully in their location and houses. BJP came to power seven years ago promising all bit things, they were supposed to rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits, but no such thing ever happened because the government lacks the will. Noting that the unity of the country is most important, enough security and protection should be provided to vulnerable people so they don’t have to move out of Kashmir. Don’t let migration happen from Kashmir as it is not good for Kashmir and is neither in the country’s interest.
The Kashmir issue is complex and it is unfortunate that there is a lack of diplomacy in addressing it. The Kashmir problem is bigger than any law. Government has to look at Kashmir with a humble approach. Hundreds of fear-stricken Kashmiri-Pandits left the Valley for the Hindu-majority Jammu district even as the Centre turned down their demand for relocation. Amid this, a prominent Pandits’ body, the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), in an open letter to the J&K Chief Justice, sought his intervention to allow frightened Pandits to leave the Valley.
Grooves of vehicles, carrying Pandit employees and their families, left the Valley dark in the morning from the Pandit transit colonies in south Kashmir’s Mattan and Vessu, Srinagar’s Sheikhpora and north Kashmir’s Baramulla and Kupwara. As if they are some terrorists and they are supposed to be living in fear. Kashmiri Pandits living at the Mattan transit colony in Anantnag claimed that over 80 per cent of the families left for Jammu since June 1. Government gave only hollow assurances from the administration. They are not feeling safe after the recent killings. Out of the 96 families living in the Mattan colony, only a dozen are left behind. They too will leave this place in the coming days. When the Modi government cannot protect them then why do they promote movies like Kashmir fine to scratch their wounds?
There are back-to-back killings in the Valley. The killings of a schoolteacher and a bank manager have shattered our faith in the security system. Our only demand is to relocate the employees outside Kashmir till the situation improves. Posting employees to district headquarters won’t help or protect them. The Jagti camp in Jammu, which was set up in the 1990s, received 120 Pandit families from north Kashmir’s Baramulla and Kupwara districts in the past 24 hours. The killing of Pandits has not stopped since 1990. In the 1990s. Each Time BJP made it a political issue to garner votes but even today they don’t have any solution to offer. The ongoing attacks are a clear violation of the right to life, which is guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, that on the one hand, the administration failed to protect their lives and on the other hand, it does not let them leave the Kashmir Valley so that they can protect their lives.
There should be timely investigation into all the targeted killings in the past eight months in Kashmir. All the officers and officials whose involvement or lapse is proved in the preliminary allegations should be suspended without any further delay. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) should be constituted to submit its report within a stipulated time and it should be monitored by the High Court. The bloodshed of innocent civilians is unacceptable and against humanity. It goes against the basic spirit and concept of Kashmiriyat. Kashmiri Pandits are deeply shocked and distressed at the killing spree that has dented the image of Kashmir again and is against its cultural ethos.
