Continued threats to Kashmiri Pandits belie govt claims of normalcy: Congress

Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir Congress on Sunday said the recent terror threats to Kashmiri Pandit employees in the valley belie the government’s claims of normalcy.

A blog linked to The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, has released separate lists of Kashmiri Pandit employees who were recruited under the Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package (PMRP), and threatened to turn their transit colonies into “graveyards.”

The government had recently informed Parliament that 118 civilians, including five Kashmiri Pandits and 16 other Hindus and Sikhs, were killed in Jammu and Kashmir between August 2019, when Article 370 was abrogated, and July this year.

Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits and other reserved category employees had shifted to Jammu in May under threat from terrorists. They are currently on a protest for over 200 days demanding relocation of Kashmiri Hindu employees outside the valley.

“Quite recently hit lists have been issued by TRF, we ask the Lt Governor to please explain how can these employees go back to their duties in such circumstances?” Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) spokesperson Deepika Singh Rajawat told reporters here.

“While he does not lose a minute to showcase his fairytale normalcy to his masters in Delhi, the bubble of his lies bursts factually when these lists are being published every other day,” she said.

Rajawat said her party is fully convinced that the BJP and LG administration have made it a “matter of ego” as they fear if they succumb to the pressure of employees, their “extravaganza of normalcy will be exposed.”

“I want to remind them that it is not a political issue but a matter of life and death. We are fed up with our politicisation all over the country,” Rajawat, also a Kashmiri Pandit, said.

The Congress leader said there are many employees who are put up in rented accommodations and who are more prone to attacks from militants.

She demanded immediate release of the salaries of the protesting employees and criticised the arm-twisting measure against the under threat employees.

“No such pressure tactic should be used against them as these actions have already made the insensitive and indifferent approach of the UT administration apparent while dealing with an issue which is solely of a humanitarian nature,” she said.