Centre not in favour of moving Kashmiri Pandits, Hindus from Kashmir Valley: Government official

This comes in the wake of increase in targeted killing of civilians in J&K and demands from the community to relocate them to Jammu

The Centre is not in favour of moving Kashmiri Pandits and Hindus from the Kashmir Valley to Jammu as it would be a repeat of the situation in the 1990s when thousands migrated out of the Valley under government’s watch in wake of repeated threats and attacks, a senior government official said on Thursday.

As targeted killing of civilians in the Kashmir Valley continued, Union Home Minister Amit Shah met National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Secretary, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) Samant Goel and Special Director, Intelligence Bureau (IB) A.S Rajan on Thursday. The details of the meeting were not known.

Mr. Shah is expected to meet Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha on Friday to discuss the security arrangement for the upcoming Amarnath Yatra and the recent killings are likely to be discussed.

The Kashmiri Pandit employees, recruited under the Prime Minister’s special rehabilitation package from 2008 onward and the Hindu employees from Jammu recruited under the Scheduled Caste category and posted in the Valley have been demanding relocation to Jammu. The Kashmiri Pandits employed under the scheme stay in gated colonies built by the government.

The demand to relocate have intensified since May 12 when a revenue official Rahul Bhat was singled out and killed in his office in Chadoora area of Budgam. On June 1, a Hindu teacher Rajni Bala was killed on way to work in Kulgam and on June 2, a bank employee from Rajasthan- Vijay Kumar was shot dead when he was at his office in Kulgam.

“Though we are seized of the matter, the administration cannot agree to the demands of minorities to move them stock and barrel to Jammu. The government employees can be posted in district headquarters and at places where adequate security is available,” said the official.

As many as 18 Kashmiri Pandits and Hindus have been killed in Kashmir Valley after Article 370 granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir was written down by Parliament in August 2019.