Press Trust of India

KP migrant employees continue protest in Jammu

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Stick to their demand of relocation outside Valley

Jammu: Kashmiri migrant pandit employees, who are on a strike for the past nearly five months following the killing of their colleague by terrorists, on Monday staged a massive protest here, seeking their relocation outside the Valley.

The protest by Kashmiri migrant pandits, employed under the Prime Minister’s package in the valley, intensified amid a recent order issued by the divisional administration in Kashmir, making bio-metric attendance compulsory for all government employees.

“They have stopped our salaries and now came out with this suppressive order to break our protest…We want government to give us an assurance that no Kashmiri pandit will be targeted by terrorists in future and if they are not in a position to give such an assurance, please accept our demand and relocate us outside Kashmir,” a protesting employee said.

He said they have been on protest for the past 151 days at the relief commissioner’s office in Jammu and are not returning to the valley under the prevailing situation.

Hundreds of PM package employees belonging to the Kashmiri migrant community moved to Jammu following the killing of Rahul Bhat inside his office in central Kashmir’s Budgam district on May 12.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and former MLC Girdhari Lal Raina expressed surprise and dismay over the directive issued by the divisional commissioner Kashmir ordering strict enforcement of bio-metric attendance for all government employees, including those recruited under PM’s employment package.

“In normal conditions such an order would be welcomed by all right thinking citizens. But under the prevailing situation in which employees belonging to religious minority in Kashmir have been subjected to targeted terrorist violence, this becomes illogical,” Raina, also a migrant Kashmiri pandit, said in a statement.

He also expressed disappointment on denial of salary to the minority community employees.

“Stopping salary to employees is punishment to their families. Even suspended employees are entitled to subsistence,” he said.


Press Trust of India

Press Trust of India is lead news agency of India

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