Facing threats, Pandit staff protest outside BJP office in Jammu

They have expressed unhappiness over Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s recent statement asking them to join duty

Facing relentless purported online threats from The Resistance Force (TRF) militant outfit in Kashmir, migrant Pandit employees, who had opted Valley postings in the past one decade, on Friday staged a demonstration outside the BJP headquarters in Jammu and expressed unhappiness over Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s recent statement asking them to join duty.

Scores of migrant Pandits and Hindu employees posted in the Kashmir Valley under reserved categories raised slogans outside the BJP office in Jammu. They were demanding relocation of Pandit and reserved category employees to Jammu till the situation in Kashmir is brought “under complete control”.

Agnishekhar, a prominent Pandit leader, accused the L-G administration of “using Pandits as a sacrificial goat”. “There are target attack survivors protesting today. Will L-G wish to see her daughter posted in Kashmir? Does any district commissioner or district magistrate move around in Kashmir without security?” Mr. Agnishekhar, while referring to the latest threats from the TRF, said.

“Pandits leaving Kashmir reflects a failure of security. These employees should be allowed to serve in Jammu till the situation improves there [in Kashmir]. They are not protesting here to have a salary sitting at home. They want to serve in Jammu,” Mr. Agnishekhar said.

Mr. Sinha recently asked the Pandit employees to return to their duties in Kashmir and warned that salaries cannot be paid to protesting Pandit employees while they were sitting at home. 

A majority of around 5,000 Kashmiri Pandit employees, who had returned to Kashmir under a special employment package introduced by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2008, left the Valley in May this year following a spree of killings carried out by militants affiliated to the TRF. Since then the employees refused to join duties despite the L-G administration’s measures to post them in groups in district headquarters and upgrading security in places where Pandit transit camps are located.

Meanwhile, fresh threats and the list of Pandit employees posted in Kashmir again surfaced online this month from the TRF, fuelling fresh scare among these employees. In these threats, the militant outfit warned that it “won’t allow Israel type settlements and deal harshly”.