Living in fear and despair, Kashmiri Hindus cry for safety

Aditi Tandon

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New Delhi, July 10

Notwithstanding Jammu and Kashmir administration’s assurances of safety, Vishal Raina does not want to return to Kashmir. He can’t overcome his perpetual sense of fear rooted in a spate of recent targeted killings of Hindus and non-locals.

Caught between hope and despair since the killings escalated starting September 2021 and peaked recently, Raina, posted in a Srinagar school under Prime Minister’s Package, like 4500 other Package beneficiaries, on Sunday again sent out an SOS to the BJP-led government.

“Save us from Pakistan-sponsored terrorists, relocate us to Jammu,” was the call emanating from capital’s Jantar Mantar, where around 100 Kashmiri Pandits assembled to reiterate that they were not in a position to return to an atmosphere of fear in Kashmir and wanted to go back to the safety of Jammu where their families are.

After the killing of a government teacher Rajni Bala, whose requests for redeployment from a Gopalpara school in Kashmir fell on deaf ears leading to her eventual killing, Raina too received death threats from an organization called TRF.

Another protester Neha Pandita said the PM package had failed completely.

“First we were being targeted inside our homes in Kashmir. So the administration shifted us to safety camps. Then the terrorists began killing us on the roads. So we were relocated closer to offices but now we are being killed inside our offices, targets are being openly declared on social media, with names and photos. How can we live in this atmosphere? The government must send us back to Jammu and attach us with the office of the Jammu Relief commissioner,” Pandita said.

Her fears are real. Rahul Bhatt, posted in the revenue department under the package, was killed by militants on May 11 near his office. He lived at Sheikhopora in Budgam, a settlement that came up for Kashmiri Pandits under the rehabilitation package.

Lucky, posted as a teacher in Anantnag under the PM Package, voiced sentiments similar to those of fellow protesters and said the government must “stop making the relocation of Kashmiri Hindus to Jammu a matter of prestige.”

“Is government’s prestige bigger than our lives? That is the question. When the BJP government came in 2014 we had high hopes of genuine rehabilitation but that has not happened. After the abrogation of Article 370, the economy of J&K improved a bit but what did Kashmiri Pandits get except bullets?,” asked Lucky.

He said he was unable to discharge his duties and every time there was a knock at his classroom door, his heart pounded from fear of death.

“This lack of safety is something only a victim can understand. Living in constant fear is impossible. This government, which has taken such bold decisions as abrogation of Article 370, can surely relocate 4500 Kashmiri Hindus to Jammu till Kashmir becomes terror free and livable for the minority,” Lucky said.

The PM Package Employees Association has been protesting for 60 days at three sites simultaneously – Jantar Mantar in Delhi, Jammu Relief Commissioner’s Office in Jammu and across different Kashmiri cities.

Despite representations to President Ram Nath Kovind and the prime minister, no one from the government has heard them so far.

They say even active terror organizations in the Valley have now started threatening Kashmir’s Muslims for giving accommodations on rent to Hindus.

There are around 6000 posts under the package and only around 1000 employees currently live in locations marked safe in Kashmir. The rest have to depend on rented housing.

“Where will we live?” ask the agitators, who comprised people like Vishal that have received direct threats and many others asked by security agencies to not venture out of homes on account of high threat perception.