No Kashmiri Pandit Left Kashmir In 2022, Government Tells Parliament

No Kashmiri Pandit has left the Kashmir valley during 2022, junior Home Minister Nityanand Rai today told the Parliament pointing to data showing all 6,514 of them are still residing there. He had last week claimed no Kashmiri Pandit migrated from the valley since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.

Many Kashmiri Pandits had threatened to leave the valley following a spate of targeted killings by terrorists. Videos showing families heading out from the valley, blaming it on the administration's failure to protect them, had gone viral on social media earlier this year triggering apprehensions of mass migration. Many of them had also claimed they were resigning from their government jobs.

Some of the community members had even threatened to appeal to international human rights organisations for asylum if the central government failed to relocate them from the valley.

However, Minister Rai, yesterday clarified in Lok Sabha that no Kashmiri Pandit working under the Prime Minister's Development Package (PMDP) has resigned in protest against the killings of fellow community members in the valley by terrorists.

Over 4,000 Pandit employees who had returned as part of the Prime Minister's special employment package since 2010 - had earlier refused to attend their duties for at least one month. According to reports, most of them had already left the valley and shifted to Jammu.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had in May reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir following the killings.

On May 12, Rahul Bhat, a government employee, was killed by terrorists inside his office in Budgam district, which triggered protests by members of the Kashmiri Pandit community who staged protests in the valley demanding enhanced security and transfer of government employees to safer locations.

A day after his death, police constable Reyaz Ahmad Thokar was shot dead by terrorists at his residence in Pulwama district.

Nityanand Rai last week said that as many as 118 civilians, including five Kashmiri Pandits and 16 other Hindus and Sikhs, were killed in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.