64,827 KASHMIRI PANDIT FAMILIES LEFT KASHMIR IN 1990s: MHA

Pakistan-sponsored terrorism forced 64,827 Kashmiri Pandit families to leave the Kashmir valley in the early 1990s and settle in Jammu, Delhi, and some other parts of the country, government has said. According to the annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs for 2020-21, as many as 14,091 civilians and 5,356 security force personnel lost their lives to militancy in Jammu and Kashmir between the 1990s, when militancy first reared its head in the valley, and 2020.

“Militancy in Jammu and Kashmir is intricately linked with infiltration of terrorists from across the border,” the report said. Besides Kashmiri Pandits, militancy forced some Sikh and Muslim families too to migrate from Kashmir Valley to Jammu, Delhi, and other parts of the country, it said. Nearly 1,054 families from the hilly areas of Jammu migrated to Jammu plains, it said.

As per the records of registration available with the Relief and Migrant Commissioner, J&K, at present 43,618 registered Kashmiri migrant families are settled in Jammu, 19,338 families are settled in Delhi and NCR, and 1,995 families in a few other states and the UTs in the country, the report said. With a view to resettle Kashmiri migrants in the valley, the MHA has approved 3,000 jobs in the J&K government under Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Package – 2008, and an additional 3,000 jobs under the Prime Minister’s Development Package – 2015 (PMDP-2015). To house these 6,000 Kashmiri migrant employees in the valley, construction of 6,000 transit accommodations has also been approved by the MHA.