People from the Kashmiri Pandit community shout slogans during their protest march against the killing of the school teacher Rajni Bala, near Srinagar Airport, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. Bala was shot dead by terrorists in Kulgam district of South Kashmir.
Highlights
- Kashmir Pandits in J&K employed under the PM Package will be moved to safer places
- The move will be in wake of recent targeted killings in the valley
- A dedicated cell has also been set up for resolving grievances related to minorities in Kashmir
Kashmir Pandits employed under the PM Package — and other minority members of the Hindu community — who are posted in far-flung areas of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) will be posted to safer places in wake of the recent targeted killings in the valley, sources said. According to reports, this process is expected to be completed by June 6.
Also, a dedicated cell in the General Administration Department has been set up for attending to and resolving grievances related to minorities in Kashmir. Members of minority communities facing any difficulty can contact the Cell, J&K Department of Information and Public Relations informed.
In the past few months, several targeted killings in the valley have taken place. Renu Bala's killing is the second such incident of a non-Muslim government employee in May. On May 12, Rahul Bhat, a clerk, was shot dead inside the tehsildar's office in Chadoora tehsil of Budgam district. Of the seven targeted killings that took place in Kashmir this month, three victims were off-duty policemen and four were civilians.
On Tuesday, a Hindu woman teacher was shot dead by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district, following which Kashmiri Pandits, employed under the PM package, threatened to undertake mass migration from the valley if they were not relocated to safe places within the next 24 hours.
The killing of Rajni Bala (36), who belonged to Jammu's Samba district but was posted at a government school in Gopalpora, Kulgam, is the second killing of a non-Muslim government employee in May and the seventh targeted killing in Kashmir this month.
Earlier in the day, anguished over "targeted" killing of many Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal demanded that they should be given adequate security and their voices should not be "quelled".
In an online press briefing, he also said that terrorist forces don't want communal amity in Jammu & Kashmir as members of the Kashmiri Pandit community are being "targeted and killed", in a reminder of what happened in the 90s.
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