New Delhi: Representatives of a Hindu minority in Indian-controlled Kashmir said on Wednesday that they would themselves start leaving the region if the government refused to relocate them to a safer place after the recent deadly attacks on members of the community. Will give
Hindus in the Kashmir Valley, locally known as Pandits, have been taking to the streets since last month to protest against the local administration, saying they have failed to provide them security in the disputed Muslim-majority region. .
At least 17 Kashmiri Hindus have been murdered in the Valley since August 2019. In the most recent incident, a Pandit teacher was shot dead outside his school in Kulgam district on Tuesday – less than a month after a government employee and community member was killed. near budgam
Tuesday’s killing sparked another wave of fear and protest, with hundreds of Pandits blocking highways in Kulgam and Srinagar, the region’s main city, demanding relocation from the Valley.
“We want us to be relocated so that we can save our lives, our families are safe and our children are safe,” Sunil Bhat, a member of the Pandit community and an activist with the local administration, told Arab News.
He said members of the community announced that they would start leaving the area on Thursday, where they live, which has been sealed by police.
Local media footage also showed checkpoints and security forces blocking entry points into the areas.
“The government has sealed our areas where migrant families from Kashmir live so that we don’t come out,” Bhat said. “We have to go to save our lives. We are asking the government to remove us from here.
Most of the Pandits, around 200,000, fled Kashmir after the 1989 anti-India rebellion. About 5,000 returned after 2010 under the government resettlement scheme, which provided jobs and housing.
Sanjay Tikku, head of the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti – the largest Kashmiri Pandit group in the region – said the government must accept that “the situation is not good.”
The problems multiplied in August 2019 after New Delhi stripped the region of its semi-autonomy and cracked down on political activities. A series of administrative measures that allowed more outsiders to settle in Kashmir also raised fears of an attempt at demographic change in the Muslim-majority region.
“If they want to bring normalcy in the Valley, the government will have to communicate with the main political parties, which have been sidelined since August 2019,” Tikku said.
Others say the security situation has worsened since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave special autonomous status to Kashmir.
Kashmiri Pandit Sandeep Kaul, whose family has been living in the Valley for generations, told Arab News, “Nothing good has happened to us after the abrogation of Article 370.”
“All pundits are living under the shadow of fear. They don’t want any more murders.”
However, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Hina Bhat said there were no plans for any transfer.
“The BJP government is doing everything to protect them and take care of the pundits,” he said.
“Displacement would be against government policy, and since we came to power, we have been working to create a situation where they can live peacefully and safely.”
But the people of the society do not feel safe.
“We are feeling so insecure that we want to leave the Valley,” Ashwin, a Kashmiri Hindu who requested anonymity, told Arab News over phone from the Valley.
“We want the government to save us and move us. If the government does not do this, we will flee.