Kashmiri Pandits claim to be 'locked up', accuse LG admin of 'false assurances'

“When we are trying to migrate from the valley, we are being stopped for no reason and our lives are being endangered. Security personnel have completely sealed off the Kashmiri Migrant Pandit Colony and no one is being allowed in or out,” Ranjan Jotshi, a Pandit employee put up at the Matttan transit camp said.

Srinagar: Kashmiri Pandit employees putting up at a transit camp in south Kashmir's Anantnag District have accused the J&K administration of failing to provide them security and relocate them to safer places in view of the target killings of minority community members. The protesters alleged that the government had “completely failed” to provide them protection.

They also accused the local administration of locking them up inside the transit camp to prevent them from traveling to Jammu. The KP employees recruited under the PM Package scheme have been consistently protesting to relocate out of the valley for their security after their fellow employee Rahul Bhat's killing last month. The demand has turned shriller after the subsequent killings of a female Hindu teacher and a banker from Rajasthan earlier this week. A non-local laborer was also killed in Budgam on Thursday.

“When we are trying to migrate from the valley, we are being stopped for no reason and our lives are being endangered. Security personnel have completely sealed off the Kashmiri Migrant Pandit Colony and no one is being allowed in or out,” Ranjan Jotshi, a Pandit employee put up at the Matttan transit camp said.

He said the employees, who have been consistently protesting to demand their relocation were hopeful that the government will note their demand. However, they have been left disappointed as the J&K administration has maintained that the employees will be transferred to "safer locations" at district headquarters, Jotshi said. "When we asked the police officer whether he guaranteed our security, he expressed helplessness, Jotshi said.

Jotshi accused the LG Manoj Sinha J&K administration of false assurances in a recent meeting. "Our only appeal is that we be relocated to safer places. But the government's assurances and lip service have fallen flat amid back-to-back killings across communities". Jothsi said that the employees have now begun to mass migrate on their own adding most families at the transit camp had reached Jammu.

Another KP employee putting up at the camp also said that the authorities had refused to give in writing over their security amid the killings. He also thanked the majority community for standing by them.