Last Update: February 15, 2023, 14:45 IST
Kashmiri Pandits working under the Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP) are detained by policemen during a protest in Jammu (PTI Photo)
As the workers gathered at a nearby square and started raising slogans in support of their demands, the police took about 50 protesters into custody.
Hundreds of migrant Kashmiri Pandit employees from the Valley demanding transfer and release of pending salaries were taken into custody on Wednesday, officials said.
The employees were to stage a sit-in outside the Press Club, but the police did not allow them.
As the workers gathered at a nearby square and started raising slogans in support of their demands, the police took about 50 protesters into custody. He was taken to the police line in a bus.
A government official said, “We tried to persuade them to withdraw, but since they were adamant on continuing with the protest, we took them into preventive custody.”
Asked whether prohibitory orders were imposed outside the Press Club – the scene of frequent protests – the official said prolonged protests in the area have become a public nuisance.
“There is no restriction on peaceful protest of half an hour or one hour, but they are occupying the place for hours till midnight, causing inconvenience to the commuters and trouble to the administration and police,” he said.
Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits employed in the Valley under the Prime Minister’s package had migrated to Jammu last May following the killing of two of their colleagues, Rahul Bhat and Rajni Bala, by terrorists.
Bhat was shot dead on May 12 inside his office in central Kashmir’s Budgam, while Bala, a schoolteacher, was shot dead on May 31 in south Kashmir’s Kulgam.
On 4 February, Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha said that many employees have resumed their duties in the Valley and instructions have been issued to release their pending salaries.
Sinha had said that the administration and security forces were working with dedication to ensure the safety of the community.
However, protesters claimed that only a few hundred employees have resumed their duties under compulsion, while many are unwilling to return to the Valley due to a “sense of insecurity”.
Yogesh Pandita, a leader of the protesting employees, said, “We have submitted dozens of memorandums and have also met the Lieutenant Governor but all our pleas have gone unheeded… Maha Shivratri, the biggest festival of the Pandit community, is round the corner but they are not releasing our salaries. are,” he said.
The protestors said they were in dire financial straits after the government withheld their salaries in September.
Appeal to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi And to Lt Governor Sinha for “sympathetic consideration” of their demands, Pandita said, “We left Kashmir because of the terror threat, which has not subsided. If we return, where will we go as we do not have safe accommodation?” ?” Another protester, Rahul Pandit, criticized the government for imposing Section 144 of CrPC outside the Press Club and said that they “have been on a peaceful protest for the last 290 days, but never blocked traffic or caused inconvenience to anyone”.
“The government is trying to hide the reality from the public and is not even allowing peaceful protests. We are forced to come on the streets because no one is listening to us.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)