To 'stop' Kashmiri Pandits from fleeing Kashmir, police check-posts on highway

Samaan Lateef

Srinagar, June 1

Migrant Kashmiri Pandit employees are being stopped at several police checkpoints on the Srinagar-Jammu highway, some of them told The Tribune.

“Family members are not being allowed to move together out of transit camps because security guards think we will leave Kashmir,” said Ashwani Sadhu, a junior engineer.

Authorities have sealed Indra Nagar locality in Srinagar where Kashmiri Pandit employees live in residential houses and hotels acquired by the government. Concertina wires and barricades were laid to prevent pandits from leaving the area.

Posting a picture of a police vehicle blocking the road leading to the Indira Nagar locality, one Shweta Bhat stated the government had failed and Indira Nagar had been sealed to prevent people from moving to Jammu.

Meanwhile, several groups of Pandit employees were seen protesting today as well in different parts of Kashmir.

“Administration should stop playing politics with us. For how long will it lock us inside our colonies to hide its failure? Those families who fled on Tuesday night have been stopped in south Kashmir,” said a protester.

At the special checkpoints on the Srinagar-Jammu highway, policemen are checking identity proofs of people and if they are found to be Pandits, they are sent back to transit camps, he said.