Provide security to Kashmiri Pandit employees or shift them to Jammu: Congress

Srinagar, Dec 28 (PTI) Kashmiri Pandit employees should be provided security or shifted to Jammu until the situation in Kashmir Valley improves, a senior Congress leader said here on Wednesday.

“We cannot leave anyone to die. The jobs were given to them by the Congress (government). They lived here for 12 years and never said they want to return to Jammu. After the (recent) targeted killings, they have been on protest,” Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) president Vikar Rasool Wani told reporters here.

The prime minister’s special package employees have been on protest and demand that they be shifted to Jammu in view of the attacks on their colleagues in the valley. The protests started following the killing of Rahul Bhat on May 12 this year.

Bhat, a clerk employed under the prime minister’s package, was shot dead inside the tehsildar’s office in Chadoora tehsil of Budgam district.

The Jammu and Kashmir Congress president said, “I think it is important to save people’s lives, so their issues should be addressed.”

He said the Kashmiri Pandit employees should be provided security and “if need be, they should be shifted to Jammu”.

“The Congress party stands with them and supports their demand,” Rasool added.

Last week, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha warned that salary would not be paid to those employees “sitting at their homes”.

“We have cleared their (protesting employees’) salaries till August 31, but it cannot be done that they will be paid their salaries while they sit at their homes. This is a loud and clear message to them and they should listen and understand it,” Sinha said in Jammu.