Less than 3,500 Pandits left in Kashmir valley

JAMMU - A massive demographic change has taken place in Kashmir valley which now has a mere 3,445 Kashmiri Pandits left as against more than 380,000 in 1990, Jammu and Kashmir Revenue Minister Raman Bhalla said Tuesday.

Making the disclosure in the state legislative assembly, the minister said that “only 808 families of Kashmiri Pandits were living in the valley” and the total number of men, women and children of the community there “is 3,445″.

Bhalla said that most of the Kashmiri Pandits had fled the valley in 1990 because of fear of militants. “The killing of community members led to a fear psychosis in the community,” he said, adding that 219 Kashmiri Pandits were killed in 1990.

Though the minister did not specify it, the number of the families living in the valley included 31 families of Kashmiri Pandits living in a protected zone in Sheikhpora in Budgam district and also the officials working in the banks and central government departments and organisations. Their exact number is however not known.

More than 350,000 Kashmiri Pandits had fled the valley in 1990.

Those who stayed back, migrated after massacres of the community members in Sangrampora in Budgam district in March 1997, Wandhama in Ganderbal, near Srinagar, in January 1998 and Nadimarg in south Kashmir in March 2003.

Kashmiri Pandits are now mostly living in Jammu and Udhampur within the state, and in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Bhalla, however, reiterated the state government’s resolve to bring the community back to the valley. He said that work is on to construct the transit accommodation for them in the valley, where they would be housed before their original properties are restored to them.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced a Rs.1,618 crore relief and rehabilitation package for the return of the Kashmiri Pandits to the “land of their grandfathers and great grandfathers,” during his visit to Jammu April 25, 2008.