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Video Producer: Naman Shah
Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma
"Just like we fled in the '90s, leaving all our prosperity to save our lives. We have decided to mass migrate. We are leaving (from Kashmir) today. The militancy is again at its peak," said Sahil, who fled Kashmir amid the recent spree of targeted killings in the Valley.
According to the Kashmiri Pandits Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), at least 100 Kashmiri Pandits who were rehabilitated under government schemes have returned from Kashmir after the rise in killings.
To add some context, after the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s, nearly 3,800 Pandits were resettled in the Valley under the government rehabilitation policy launched in 2008.
After the recent killings, as many left Kashmir again, The Quint spoke to some Kashmiri Pandits who have now taken refuge in Jammu's Jagti migrants camp.
One of them, Surender Raina, an employee under the prime minister's employment package in Kashmir, told us:
"We have seen minority killings earlier too, but this time, the militancy has taken the form of targeted killings. They ask for names and addresses before killing. How can we live safely there?"
'Relocate Us Outside the Valley'
"In the name of security, the administration has merely transferred us to the district headquarters. Will these killings stop by merely transferring us to the district headquarters? Won't we travel from our respective homes to district headquarters? Will nothing happen to us on the way? Even if they provide security in district headquarters, what is its use when we are in transit outside the headquarters? Anything can happen on the way. That's why we didn't think living there would be safe," said Sahil, who was rehabilitated in Kashmir under prime minister's employment package in 2017.
"Our only demand to the government is to relocate us outside the Valley because there is no place in Kashmir that is safe. I have been working there for 12 years and I want to carry out my duties. But if my mind is preoccupied with the fear of being killed. How can I carry out my duties then?" added Raina.
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