Srinagar, August 3
Amidst threatening noises coming from extremist organisations, the exodus of outsiders, who have earned their livelihood in Kashmir for years doing menial jobs, continues. But what has baffled moderates and the migrants alike is the meek silence of the state government even as hundreds of migrants continue to leave the valley.

Mohammad Asif (17), who worked in a hotel in Kupwara district, was among those who stayed put even as many of his acquaintances had left in the past few days. Today, he, too, decided enough was enough. “My employer and some locals were sympathetic to me. Then I decided against moving. But, I found circumstances no longer convivial and there were always some who said we could be targeted”, he told The Tribune as he and some others from his home state of West Bengal waited here for a bus to Jammu.

Travel operators said migrants, numbering in thousands, have left the valley since hardliner Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Gilani asked locals to “see outsiders off in a dignified manner”. Militant organisation Hizbul Mujahiddin seconded his opinion and went a step further warning them with dire consequences if they not left the valley.

Though Gilani later softened his stand, saying that he wanted only criminals among outsiders to leave, the atmosphere of fear refused to subside. His stand remains ambivalent as it is almost impossible to sort “criminals” and non-criminals, only adding to migrants’ apprehensions.

The coalition government of the Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party has surprisingly preferred to remain in the background even as the whole state is caught-up in this “outsider-should-leave-or-not” debate. When asked, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad took the obvious stand of denouncing the statements of separatists like Gilani. But, there has been little assertiveness on the part of his government in reassuring the people for their safety if they stayed back. Locals are against outsiders leaving the valley as they have been a source of cheap and skilled labour for years, as for senior bureaucrats in the secretariat. “The past few days have only strengthened those who practice the politics of narrow-mindedness and a blow to democratic machinery in the state”, a senior officer said.

However, a significant number of migrants in cities like Srinagar have decided against moving with locals’ supporting them. Migrant labourers have often been at the receiving end of extremists’ fire as they have faced allegations of bringing in “bad” practices like drinking and gambling. The rape and murder of a minor girl in Langate 10 days ago only worsened the matters for them when two of the four accused were outsiders.