JAMMU: Kashmiri Pandit (KP) employees, protesting for release of their pending salaries and relocation to Jammu, staged an overnight sit-in outside the BJP office here and refused to budge till their demands are met.
The employees have been protesting for the past 287 days after their colleagues were killed by terrorists in the Valley. They have alleged that while terrorists are out to target and kill them in Kashmir, the administration is starving their families by stopping salaries for the past eight months, and not releasing it even on their biggest festival Maha Shivratri.
“We will not move out from here till the order to release our salaries is given,” a protesting employee, Ashwani Pandita, said.
“The targeted killings of nearly 22 minority community members have created a fear psychosis. We do not want to become sitting ducks for target practice of terrorists in the Valley,” Pandita said.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor said his administration accorded top priority to the security of Kashmiri Pandits. “The salaries have been released for the employees, including those under the PM job package, who have returned to work in Kashmir,” he said while addressing a function in connection with a three-day Shivratri mela at Jagti migrant township on the outskirts of the city. He said the administration would always stand by the community. He also said that progress had been made for construction of housing units for the PM package employees in Kashmir.