Hope fades at J-K migrant camps

As relatives made preparations today to cremate the 24 Kashmiri Hindus shot dead by militants in the Valley, over 300 km away, a pall of glo...

As relatives made preparations today to cremate the 24 Kashmiri Hindus shot dead by militants in the Valley, over 300 km away, a pall of gloom enveloped all the migrant camps in Purhoo, Mishriwalla, Lower and Upper Muthi on the outskirts of Jammu city. As did the realisation that despite the government’s promises and assurances of safe zones, home remained a distant dream.

‘‘Who will go there to get killed?’’ said Raj Nath of Pulwama, where the militants struck last night, when asked about the ‘‘safe zones’’ the government had recently created in Mattan and Khirbhawani for the return of Kashmiri Pandits in the first phase. ‘‘Who will listen to us when they (the militants) least care for their own people from the majority community?’’ he added.

Almost admitting this in the Assembly today, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed said that the situation has to be made conducive before the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley. In an apparent reference to the recent killing of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Abdul Aziz Mir by militants, he added: ‘‘If protected people like us are not safe there, what can be the fate of the common man?’’

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Worse is the condition of those Pandits who had ‘‘discreetly’’ agreed to return to the Valley as part of the government’s rehabilitation plan for them. Dubbed ‘‘government agents’’ by own community members, they are now rethinking returning to their native places in the Valley.

Jawahar Lal of Kokernag and Veena Devi of Mattan said they can’t imagine going back under the circumstances, while Roshan Lal of Noorpora (Tral) felt the massacre, the first major one in six years, had shattered claims of normalcy.

Protest demonstrations and processions were held all across Jammu today against the ‘‘failure’’ of the state government to protect the minority community members still living in the Valley. In Jammu city, Kashmiri Pandit and local BJP leaders took out a procession and later courted arrests at City Chowk. Later, they gave a call for Jammu bandh tomorrow.

Housing and Urban Development Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir said the massacre had hampered government efforts to rehabilitate Pandits in the Valley. ‘‘Though the political will is there, the massacre has a psychological impact,’’ he said.

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It is not the first time that militants have sabotaged government moves to return Pandits to the Valley. In 1997, when the then Farooq Abdullah government had initiated similar measures, militants had struck at Wandhama and Sangrampura, killing 25 and seven Pandits respectively. Since then, whenever there has been any government move, militants have stepped up violence.