Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, July 27: Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai today told the Parliament that no Kashmiri Pandit has left the valley during 2022, according to data demonstrating that every single one of the 6,514 Kashmiri Pandits are still living there. He had stated last week that no Kashmiri Pandits had left the valley after Article 370 was repealed in August 2019.
As per the records, no Kashmiri Pandit has left from the Kashmir Valley during the year 2022. The number of Kashmiri Pandits who are still residing in the valley is 6,514: MoS Home Nityanand Rai to Rajya Sabha pic.twitter.com/mMIhUoODBM
— ANI (@ANI) July 27, 2022
A number of Kashmiri Pandits have threatened to leave the valley after a wave of terrorists’ targeted executions. Early this year, videos of families leaving the valley went popular on social media, accusing the authorities of failing to safeguard them and sparking fears of a large-scale exodus. Many of them had also stated that they were leaving their positions with the administration.
If the central government does not relocate them from the valley, some members of the community have even threatened to request asylum from international human rights organisations.
Minister Rai, however, made it clear in the Lok Sabha yesterday that no Kashmiri Pandit employed by the PMDP has quit in protest at the terrorist deaths of members of their own community in the valley.
Since 2010, almost 4,000 Pandit employees have been hired back as part of the Prime Minister’s special employment package; however, they had previously refused to report to work for at least a month. The majority of them, according to sources, had already relocated to Jammu from the valley.
Following the killings, Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, assessed the security situation in Jammu & Kashmir in May.
Following the murder of government worker Rahul Bhat on May 12 by terrorists inside his office in the Budgam district, members of the Kashmiri Pandit community protested around the valley, calling for increased security and the relocation of government workers to safer areas.
