No Kashmiri migrant has returned to Valley: Minister

JAMMU - Over 350,000 Kashmiri Pandits had fled the Valley two decades ago when Islamic militancy erupted and not a single migrant has returned in all these years, Revenue Minister Raman Bhalla said.

“So far, no migrant has returned to the Valley,” Bhalla said in a written reply in the assembly Friday to a question by Hakim Mohammad Yaseen, an independent legislator.

The thousands of Hindus who fled the Valley 20 years ago have settled down in migrant camps in Jammu region and other parts of the country.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had in April 2008 announced a relief, return and rehabilitation package for the migrants and the state has reserved 3,000 posts for Kashmiri Pandit youth in various departments in the Valley, but so far no one had been recruited.

“The government has referred the posts to the recruitment board,” the minister said in his reply.