Jammu & Kashmir: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday took stock of the security situation in Jammu & Kashmir in the wake of a series of targeted killings in the valley with security and intelligence top brass. National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval, Army Chief General Manoj Pande, and Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir Manoj Sinha were among those who attended the meeting. The Home Minister also reviewed the security situation in Jammu & Kashmir and security arrangements for the upcoming Amarnath Yatra also figured in the meetings. The high-level meeting came after terrorists carried out a series of targeted killings in the Kashmir valley, mostly of Hindus, security personnel, and local civilians.Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Director of Intelligence Bureau Arvind Kumar, Director General of Central Reserve Police Force Kuldiep Singh, Border Security Force chief Pankaj Singh, and Jammu & Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbag Singh were among other key officials who took part in the meeting. Earlier, Shah had an informal meeting with LG Manoj Sinha, Arvind Kumar, Secretary of RAW Samant Goel and DGP of Jammu & Kashmir Dilbagh Singh.
Two persons — a bank employee and a brick kiln labourer — were killed in Kashmir on Thursday while another labourer was injured in two separate incidents. The bank manager was the ninth and the labourer was the 10th targeted killing in Kashmir since May 1. A woman teacher hailing from the Samba district of the Jammu region was shot dead by terrorists at a school in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Tuesday. On May 18, terrorists had entered a wine shop at Baramulla in North Kashmir and threw a grenade, killing one person from the Jammu region and injuring three others. Policeman Saifullah Qadri was shot dead outside his residence in Srinagar on May 24 while television artiste Amreen Bhat was gunned down in Budgam two days later. Meanwhile, panic stricken Kashmiri Pandit employees on Friday shifted their families from Kashmir valley to Jammu ignoring assurances given by the Union Territory administration to ensure their safety after their relocation to safer places within Kashmir valley. Rough estimates suggested more than 100 families, the majority of whom were staying in rented accommodation, left the valley early in the morning. Few families living in transit camps also managed to reach Jammu despite facing many roadblocks. As the day progressed the district authorities in Anantnag, Baramulla, Budgam and Srinagar locked down the main gates of various transit camps to prevent movement of employees. Despite these restrictions some of the employees, citing medical emergencies, managed to move towards Jammu to ensure safety of their families.
Senior police and district administration officers have been regularly visiting these camps to motivate these employees to stay put and not to encourage anti-national elements who are hell bent upon triggering a second round of migration of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir valley. On reaching Jammu several employees interacted with the media on the road side near Jagti Migrant camp before heading to their homes in different directions. A Kashmir Pandit employee who reached Jammu late Friday afternoon said, “All eyes were set on the high-level meeting between the Shah and LG Sinha in New Delhi. But the outcome of the meeting has disappointed us. We have learnt through media reports that the Government has decided not to shift the employees deployed under the PM’s package to safer places in Jammu. We are not going to accept this diktat. “We will not go back to Kashmir valley because we fear for our lives. Despite assurances after the killing of Rahul Bhat the JUT administration has failed to prevent targeted killings.” He said the administration was regularly sending police and civil officers to motivate them to stay back and not return to Jammu. “Despite restrictions, around 70 per cent of employees have vacated their accommodation in these camps and already shifted to Jammu,” he said. A representative of the Kashmiri Pandit employees camp committee claimed, “When we came here to work 12 years ago we considered ourselves ambassadors of the Government. We always considered ourselves an integral part of Kashmir. But a series of targeted killings have exposed the ugly reality. We are not welcome here as employees. We are not safe here anymore.” Another employee told the media persons in Jammu on Friday, “There is nothing new about this ‘Naya Kashmir ‘as projected by the UT administration through full page advertisements.”
Along with Kashmiri Pandit migrant employees, a large number of SC/ST employees under reserved category were working in the valley, they migrated to Jammu after Rajni Bala was killed in cold blood outside her school on May 31. She had been working in Kashmir since June 2009. Her husband Raj Kumar has also appealed to the UT administration to transfer him to Jammu as he cannot return to Kulgam along with his daughter and survive there. Several other women employees have been staging protest demonstrations in Jammu for the last three days in support of their demand to transfer them to their home district.
