“Making the transfer list public on social media platforms is a big security breach as terrorists now have a clear idea who is posted where,” BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur said in a statement.
Anger mounts
Meanwhile, Kashmiri Pandits reacted in anger after the leak. The J&K government decided on Saturday to transfer these teachers to locations deemed “safe” in Srinagar and district HQs in Kashmir. But, Kashmiri Pandits said that instead of agreeing to their request to relocate them to Jammu, or any place outside Kashmir, the government has made them “sitting ducks” for terrorists by making the list public.
People called the policy to transfer teachers a “hare-brained idea”. “I have been transferred from Anantnag to Jawahar Nagar School in Srinagar. But my engineer husband still has to travel 10km to Shalteng on Gulmarg road. We have been instructed not to send our children to schools for some time,” ToI quoted teacher Neeru Pankaj as saying.
She said her seven-year old daughter, a student of DPS Srinagar, is scared of going to school. “We have decided to go back to Jammu.”
Most Kashmiri Pandit families have left their “resettlement” colonies to escape the recent spurt in fatal terrorist strikes targeting Hindus living and working in the Valley. Those who stayed behind were cooped up in heavily-guarded housing built for them, with the government not allowing them to leave or acceding to their demand to relocate them outside Kashmir.
Social welfare officer Ranjan Jotshi said 96 Kashmiri Pandit families were living in Mattan, Anantnag district, since 2010, but only eight stayed back in the government-built camp after targeted killings escalated in recent months. “Besides those in the camp, about 250 families were staying in rented accommodations. All of them have migrated to Jammu,” he told TOI.
Kashmir recorded nine targeted killings since May 1—three off-duty policemen and six civilians. Dalit teacher Rajni Bala, a bank branch manager from Rajasthan, and a migrant brick kiln worker were killed since May 31.
The question on top of everyone’s mind is what are the odds that terrorists won’t target them in Srinagar and other big towns, when they could murder government clerk Rahul Bhat and bank manager Vijay Kumar in their offices or teacher Bala outside her school?
“What about employees of other departments like social welfare, roads and building? These have not issued any transfer order,” TOI quoted Rakesh Pandita, who lives in Nuthusia, Handwara, in the border district Kupwara.
He said there are only 20 Kashmiri Pandits left in his camp. “There were 350 people in Nuthusia in Kupwara, including those who had rented houses in the area. No one wants to risk their lives.”
According to Jotshi, currently posted in the DC office of Anantang, people have been more frustrated by official apathy. “We had a meeting with divisional commissioner Pandurang K. Pole on May 7 in his Srinagar office. Instead of giving us a patient hearing, he asked his security to detain me. I was let off later.”
Avtar Krishan, a teacher posted in Langate, Baramulla, said Kashmiri Pandit employees want the government to shift them out of Kashmir, not transfer them to district HQs in the Valley. “I approached the school education director in April, before Rahul Bhat was killed in the tehsil office of Chadoora. I told him about my fears…that I feel threatened. He did not respond,” he alleged.