Asem Mohiuddin
On Last Thursday when a young man Rahul Bhat was shot dead in broad daylight at his office, it unnerved all the security and political agencies in Kashmir. Yet, again the claims of the Government of India to ensure fool proof security of migrant pandits in Kashmir proved wrong. Bhat was serving in Revenue department at Chadoora, Central Kashmir where he fell to the bullets of terrorists and was employed under Prime Minister’s rehabilitation package.
The killing of the migrant man triggered massive protests across the Union Territory and in parts of the country. BJP was pushed to the back foot for its security failure in ensuring the security of all those migrants who returned to the valley in the last several years as part of the Union Government’s rehabilitation programme.
“We are more scared than ever in Kashmir now. We are victims of politics,” said Sunil Pandita, social activist who represents the community.
Pandita believes that the bloodshed of human beings can only be stopped if we rise above the ideological and political lines and defend ourselves as human beings.
“If we continue to leave our interests to these political parties to defend, we will only suffer. Better to defend ourselves and disallow these political parties to exploit our pain and grief,” he added.
But Shadi Lal Pandita is shifting the blame to ruling BJP and demands the resignation of the party on moral grounds.
“The BJP has been exploiting the community for its political gains across the country. The killings of Pandits have been happening only during BJP rule for playing communal agenda. It has undone even all the good of the previous government led by Congress,” he said, who represents the Congress party from the community.
The Pandits who have been protesting for the last one week have a unison demand of relocating their postings to safer areas. Majority of the Pandit employees want to return to Jammu and feel insecure in Kashmir now.
“There is a sense of insecurity in Kashmir right now. As an immediate relief, the government shall try to shift all the Pandit employees to Jammu till the situation gets back to normal,” said Sanjay Dhar, who represents JDU.
The lieutenant governor after the killing of Rahul Bhat immediately formed the special section in his office to ensure the grievances of the community employees in Kashmir are timely addressed. However, it didn’t please the Pandits and question the establishment regarding their safety and its claims of offering foolproof security in Kashmir.
On Friday hundreds of people from the community marched towards the Srinagar airport after Manoj Sinha failed to meet them at their Sheikhpora colony.
The protesters were demanding that Sinha must visit them at the colony and promise them security to avoid any such incident in future. Police baton charged the protesters and fired numerous tear canisters to disperse the protesting crowd.
Gawhar Wani, a political activist, however, is concerned about the prevailing situation. He hopes that the prevailing situation in Kashmir shall not force even those who are already settled there to migrate.
“If the situation prevails, those Pandits who are settled in Kashmir will be forced to migrate and it will be a bigger problem than what exists on ground right now. In future the resettlement will be more difficult,” he opines and urges the government to provide all possible support to the community to protect their lives and jobs.
Meanwhile, there are ongoing protests on ground in Kashmir and Jammu. The Jagti where the largest satellite colony of Pandits is located witnesses protests for last 6 days against the killing. Most of the people are protesting against the BJP led government who speaks a lot for the community but fails to deliver on ground especially from a security point of view.
The local political parties including Jammu Kashmir National Conference and PDP blame the recently released Kashmir Files movie for spreading hatred within communities.
“BJP is working on a communal agenda and attacking Muslims in the country. In Kashmir, the Pandits suffer in its reaction,” said PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.
Farooq Abduallh demands the immediate ban on the movie to stop further division in the communities.
It has been the third killing this year so far from the minority community and there is a dip in the footfalls of non local labourers in Kashmir.
Last year, following the killings of non locals by terrorists groups, the migrant labourers left the valley immediately.
