The Central government has said that no Kashmiri Pandit left the Valley during the first seven months of 2022. Union Minister of State Nityanand Rai also told the Rajya Sabha that no member of the KP community working under the Prime Minister’s Development Package had resigned in protest against the killings of fellow community members. According to the MoS Home the number of Kashmiri Pandits who are still residing in the valley is 6,514.
The remarks come amid contradictory reports suggesting that a series of civilian deaths had triggered an exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley. Since the repeal of Article 370 in August 2019, nine government employees (excluding security forces) have lost their lives in terror-related incidents in Jammu and Kashmir. Rai however insisted that no Kashmiri Pandit had migrated from the Valley since August 2019.
The minister said the highest number of Kashmiri Pandits are living in Kulgam district (2,639), followed by Budgam (1,204), Anantnag (808), Pulwama (579), Srinagar (455), Shopian (320), and Baramulla (294), among others. Rai last week had said that as many as 118 civilians, including five Kashmiri Pandits and 16 other Hindus and Sikhs, were killed in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
“As per the information provided by the government of Jammu and Kashmir, no Kashmiri Pandit working under the Prime Minister’s Development Package has resigned in protest against the killing of a Kashmiri Pandit in Kashmir Valley,” Rai said in reply to a written question.
Following the death of a government employee – Rahul Bhat – Kashmiri Pandit employees have continue their protest for relocation outside Valley. Bhat had got the job of a clerk under the special employment package for displaced Kashmiri Pandits was killed by terrorists inside the Tehsil office in Chadoora town in Budgam district of central Kashmir on May 12.
They had also rejected the government’s decision to shift them to district and tehsil headquarters within the valley and have been sticking to their demand for relocation. The minister of state for home today said that the government has approved construction of 6,000 transit accommodations for the Kashmiri migrant employees engaged or to be engaged in different departments of the Jammu and Kashmir government in the Valley.
