<p>A hit-list that includes the names of 56 Kashmiri Pandit government employees has triggered panic in the community. Issued by The Resistance Front (TRF), which is believed to be a front of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the hit-list is the latest in a series of moves by such groups to create terror among Kashmiri Pandits and other religious minorities to drive them out of Kashmir Valley. The TRF emerged in the months following the Modi government’s revocation of Article 370 and Article 35-A in August 2019.</p>.<p>It has carried out dozens of attacks on security forces and civilians. Over the last couple of years, the TRF has targeted Pandits and non-Kashmiri migrant labourers and killed several of them. What makes the latest hit-list particularly worrying is that the information relating to the Pandits employed under the Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package seems to have been leaked from the Education Department, where they are employed. Such information should have been confidential, especially given the dire security situation in the Valley. Understandably, it has raised questions as to how the TRF was able to obtain the information. Does the outfit have sympathisers in government departments?</p>.<p>Kashmiri Pandit organisations have been calling for improved security for members of the community at least since April. While the Prime Minister’s Package to rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley was started by the Manmohan Singh government in 2008 and the Modi government has continued with it, the latter has not only been lax in providing security to the Pandits and migrants in the Valley, it has also sought to prevent them from relocating to Jammu and other safer areas, despite the recent spate of targeted killings, in a bid to show that there is normalcy in J&K under its rule. That’s not true. So far, at least 200 Pandit families are said to have fled to Jammu and hundreds more are desperate to do the same. Their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Will the latest hit-list change the attitude of the government towards them? </p>.<p>The BJP has sought to project itself as the guardian of Pandit interests and has, to this end, promoted vile propaganda and engaged in hate speech. But beyond using the Pandits’ plight for political and electoral gain, it has done little to help them. Indeed, its relentless pitting of Pandits against Muslims, communal delimitation of electoral boundaries and the revocation of Article 35-A have made the Pandit community vulnerable to attack. No amount of beefing up of security along the border or in Kashmir’s towns and villages can improve security so long as the government itself persists in playing communal politics over Kashmir.</p>
<p>A hit-list that includes the names of 56 Kashmiri Pandit government employees has triggered panic in the community. Issued by The Resistance Front (TRF), which is believed to be a front of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the hit-list is the latest in a series of moves by such groups to create terror among Kashmiri Pandits and other religious minorities to drive them out of Kashmir Valley. The TRF emerged in the months following the Modi government’s revocation of Article 370 and Article 35-A in August 2019.</p>.<p>It has carried out dozens of attacks on security forces and civilians. Over the last couple of years, the TRF has targeted Pandits and non-Kashmiri migrant labourers and killed several of them. What makes the latest hit-list particularly worrying is that the information relating to the Pandits employed under the Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package seems to have been leaked from the Education Department, where they are employed. Such information should have been confidential, especially given the dire security situation in the Valley. Understandably, it has raised questions as to how the TRF was able to obtain the information. Does the outfit have sympathisers in government departments?</p>.<p>Kashmiri Pandit organisations have been calling for improved security for members of the community at least since April. While the Prime Minister’s Package to rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley was started by the Manmohan Singh government in 2008 and the Modi government has continued with it, the latter has not only been lax in providing security to the Pandits and migrants in the Valley, it has also sought to prevent them from relocating to Jammu and other safer areas, despite the recent spate of targeted killings, in a bid to show that there is normalcy in J&K under its rule. That’s not true. So far, at least 200 Pandit families are said to have fled to Jammu and hundreds more are desperate to do the same. Their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Will the latest hit-list change the attitude of the government towards them? </p>.<p>The BJP has sought to project itself as the guardian of Pandit interests and has, to this end, promoted vile propaganda and engaged in hate speech. But beyond using the Pandits’ plight for political and electoral gain, it has done little to help them. Indeed, its relentless pitting of Pandits against Muslims, communal delimitation of electoral boundaries and the revocation of Article 35-A have made the Pandit community vulnerable to attack. No amount of beefing up of security along the border or in Kashmir’s towns and villages can improve security so long as the government itself persists in playing communal politics over Kashmir.</p>
