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Despite Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah's offer of
protection, Hindu government employees, who fled the insurgency in
the Kashmir Valley, say they will defy orders to rejoin their
earlier posts till peace is fully restored Terming as "inhuman" Dr
Abdullah's warning to them to either report to their duties or
quit, they said the Government should first create conditions that
would enable them to return.
"The Government should first make the Valley trouble-free before
forcibly herding employees or other migrants there," Mr M L Kaul, a
senior leader of the All India Kashmiri Pandit Conference (AIKPC),
one of the frontline organisations of Kashmiri Hindus living in
Jammu, told newspersons. The Chief Minister had declared at a press
conference in Jammu that all the displaced employees would have to
return to the Valley.
"Either they report to their duties in the valley or they go (from
Government service)," Dr Abdullah had said.
The State Government would soon issue orders to this effect, the
Chief Minister added. State Government officials in Jammu say more
than 25,000 Kashmiri Hindus, who have been living in Jammu for the
past seven years, were drawing salaries and other benefits as
employees of the State Government without doing any work.
Dr Abdullah argued: If others can work (in the Valley), why not
them. The Government will provide them security and adequate
financial assistance to rebuild their damaged or burnt houses - "
Dr Abdullah's announcement has also triggered a debate in the state
on whether he would succeed in getting the Hindus back to the
Valley, especially after renewed threats by the militants. Mr
Rakesh Dhar, a teacher who was forced to flee the Valley seven
years ago when militants served notice on Hindus to leave, dreads
the thought of returning.
He said: "My house was burnt. All my relatives and friends are
here. Someone else has been appointed in my post there (in the
Valley).
"If I rejoin my duty there, the displaced native would be after my
blood and what is the guarantee that militants will not hound us
again? He said he would "prefer to beg on the streets here than go
back to a life of horror there." Kashmiri Hindus began leaving the
valley from late 1989 when the separatist movement turned violent."
The trickle of migration became a flood when several prominent
Hindu leaders were targeted by militants. Nearly 300,000 Kashmiri
Hindus took refuge in Jammu region.
The separatists, however, blamed the then State Governor Jagmohan
for causing an exodus as he had "plans to launch a massacre of
Muslims (remaining) in Kashmir."
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