Dear Editor,
The recent spate of brutal killings of religious minorities in Kashmir have created widespread panic in the valley particularly among Kashmiri Pandit Package employees who are becoming easy soft targets for the radical brute forces. It may not be out of context to mention here that the situation in Kashmir is neither feasible nor conducive for the working and living of PM package employees and thus rightly these patriotic sons of soil are agitating from the last more than 100 days in support of their relocation demand. But it is very sorry state of affairs that the LG administration is paying deaf ears towards the agitating package employees. The situation in Kashmir resembles the same as that of the hay-days of terrorism during 1990s and these days the Hindu minorities are feeling highly threatened fearing for their lives. However, the centre government’s narrative of normalcy in Kashmir has completely fallen flat because since abrogation of Article 370, Kashmir is witnessing the attacks on Hindu minorities unabatedly. The dubious and callous attitude of the centre government with regard to the plight of Package employees has created mental agony and distress among them. The package employees are demanding their deployment/attachment with the Relief Commissioner’s Migrant Office Jammu till the situation normalizes in valley. Instead of initiating dialogue with the protesting package employees, the authorities at the helm of affairs are hell bent upon coercing these hapless employees to resume their duties in Kashmir and some DDOs have stopped their salaries which is very disturbing phenomenon. Even some DDOs in Kashmir have termed the targeted and selective killings of Hindu minorities as ‘an unwanted episode’ which is very dejected and sad. It is high time now the LG administration should take a pragmatic view of the whole situation where fear psychosis has gripped the minorities living in the Valley and as a stop gap measure an option may be given to Prime Minister Employment package and other minority community employees to work from home for the time being till all employees be relocated to Jammu province. The Government should not resort to any coercive measures as long as the fear psychosis is removed from the minds of the employees who have been working with zeal and commitment for more than one decade and have contributed positively to the social and economic development of the Valley.
It is worthwhile to mention here that the situation in Kashmir at present is uncertain and unprecedented & Kashmiri Pandit package employees are more vulnerable due to the worsening security scenario in valley. Now Kashmiri Pandit package employees expect healing touch from the government but unfortunately the authorities concerned are harassing these package employees by exploiting their helplessness and forcing them to join back their duties in Kashmir. Moreover, pen terrorism and hybrid terrorism are at its peak in Kashmir thereby adding woes and miseries to these nationalist package employees. The centre government and LG administration should not disregard the genuine relocation demand of package employees and a committee must be framed immediately for looking into the transfer policy of package employees. The only viable solution at present is to relocate/shift all Prime Minister Employment package employees to Relief Commissioner’s Migrant office Jammu, till Kashmir is declared completely terror-free.
Pupu Ji Koul,
Jammu.
