Marking 26 years of their exile, displaced Kashmiri Pandits on Tuesday said that apart from facing “Islamic terrorism”, the community has also been a victim of the “administrative terrorism”, which they alleged has delayed their rehabilitation in Kashmir.
“We were hounded out of our houses when the Islamic terrorism started in the Kashmir Valley, but in the past 26 years we have become victims of the administrative terrorism,” national spokesman of All Party Migrant Coordination Committee King Bharti said.
“Neither the state nor the central government showed seriousness towards our rehabilitation. In the past 26 years, nobody came forward with a way,” Bharti said.
He said the two major concerns of the community, including employment for the educated youth, and the return and rehabilitation of the community, remained unfulfilled.
Stressing on the security aspect, Bharti said, “You can guard our houses, colonies…but it’s not possible to provide security to each and every Kashmiri Pandit when they go out in the market. Security is the most important aspect connected to the return of the community.”
The UPA-1 government had offered a rehabilitation package for KPs that proposed Rs 7.5 lakh to every Kashmiri Pandit family willing to return to the Valley.
“Several families volunteered to return and filled up the forms. Eight years after that, there has been no progress,” said Sham Ji Bhat, who has been living at the Jagti Migrant camp.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had in a written reply in Parliament said that only one family has returned.
The KPs say their return to the Kashmir Valley is linked to employment, as the youths willing to return need to have a source of livelihood.
“The return is not possible without an employment package. The government has only been talking about the return of Kashmiri Pandits. Do they want the younger generation of KPs to stay out of Kashmir?…the youth can return only when they have proper employment avenues in the Valley,” a senior journalist from the community, Sominder Kaul, said.
The proposal to rehabilitate the community in composite townships in the Valley was mooted by the Narendra Modi government, which faced opposition not only from separatists but also the mainstream political parties in Kashmir.
Due to lack of employment opportunities for the educated KP youths who have been putting up in various migrant camps across the Jammu region, drug abuse and psychological disorders have become rampant.
“Our youth has become so much frustrated because they don’t have jobs, they become easy prey to drugs and psychological diseases.
The government needs to take immediate steps to save the current and future generations of the community,” Chand Ji, another resident of the camp, said.
