Female J&K teacher's killing: Protesting KP employees give 24 hour ultimatum for relocation

A group of the KP employees blocked the National Highway for a few hours in Srinagar in protest to reiterate their demand for relocation. They gave an ultimatum to the LG Sinha led administration saying they will mass migrate from the valley if the administration failed to act.

Srinagar: Followed by the brutal killing of a Hindu female teacher in south Kashmir's Kulgam district on Tuesday, a group of Kashmiri Pandits staged a protest threatening to mass migrate if the LG Manoj Sinha led J&K administration does not relocate them outside the valley in the next 24 hours. The teacher identified as Rajni Bala, wife of Raj Kumar, a resident of Samba was shot at by suspected militants at her school in Kulgam and died at the hospital.

The killing comes less than a month after Kashmiri Pandit employee Rahul Bhat was shot dead inside his office in the Chadoora area in central Kashmir's Budgam district on May 12. Since Bhat's killing, the KP employees recruited under the PM Package scheme have been consistently protesting to relocate out of the valley for their security. The demand has turned shriller after Rajni's killing on Tuesday.

A group of the KP employees blocked the National Highway for a few hours in Srinagar in protest to reiterate their demand for relocation. They gave an ultimatum to the LG Sinha led administration saying they will mass migrate from the valley if the administration failed to act.

“Another sister of ours was killed during morning assembly and the target killings continue. We are tired of asking the government time and again to relocate us from here to save us. We are now giving an ultimatum to the government to relocate us in 24 hours failing which we will mass migrate from here,” a protesting employee said. “We should be at least relocated for the next 2-3 years as IGP Kashmir said that terrorism will be eliminated from Kashmir by then,” he added.

The protesting employees contested the claims that they had been provided security at the transit camps in the valley saying only 1,250 people were putting up at such camps while 4,000 families are living in rented accommodations at a time. “Providing security to every migrant is next to impossible. The government does not tell you this,” a protesting employee said.