Say they will end the fast-unto-death only after getting a proper response from the government.
Srinagar: Hundreds of those non-migrant Kashmiri families who had not fled from here in 1990, are now on a fast-unto-death protest in Srinagar for being neglected as the authorities.
Members of the Kashmiri Pandit Sangrash Samithi, an organisation of Kashmiri pandits, who are living here, are headed by Sanjay Tiku. He told The Sunday Guardian on Friday that they will end the fast only after getting a proper response from the government.
Flanked by Sandeep Koul, a young non-migrant Kashmiri pandit, and Bhupider Singh Jamwal, who hails from Tengbal village of Kulgam, Sanajy Tiku said that in 1990, against all odds, 808 Hindu families decided to live here, but they are being punished by the administration for taking such a bold step. Tiku said that he has the support of all these families, including 175 Hindu non-migrant families from Baramulla, Uri, Sheeri etc. Bhupindar Singh Jamwal said that they got nothing in the past so many years while migrant Hindus got jobs, homes and reservations for their wards. Jamwal said that in Kulgam, despite being in South Kashmir, still 50 Hindu Rajput families are living without any fear at the ground level within the society.
Sanjay Tiku said that the Central government led by the BJP should understand that “we have been suffering and they are not paying any attention to our lives. We want financial assistance, jobs, migrant welfare funds and other facilities being provided to migrant families who live outside Jammu and Kashmir”. He said that the Prime Minister’s job package should be extended to their families also and many of them who are without their own accommodation now, should get the money from the Central government for their houses.
Giving details, he said that when he was on a similar protest a few months back, Srinagar deputy commissioner Shahid Iqbal Chowdhary and Advisor to LG, Baseer Ahmad Khan, assured them that their demands would be met soon, but it never happened.
Tiku blamed the local administration for punishing them and said that the Central government was more than willing to extend the package to non-migrant Hindu families too.
The Samithi has appealed to Prime Minister Modi to intervene and save their wards from neglect, as most of the youth of these Hindu families who have not migrated, have no government or private jobs. “Should we be starved to death? The Central government should take the final decision about our fate,” Tiku said.