No Heavy Minority Community Rush, Says Srinagar Airport as Killing of Bank Employee Fuels Exodus Fears

Airport authorities in Srinagar on Thursday denied any unusual increase in passenger footfall amid fears that non-locals and Kashmiri Pandit employees were rushing to leave the Union Territory hours after terrorists shot dead a bank employee from Rajasthan in Kashmir’s Kulgam district.

“We strongly rebut the sensational rumour-mongering. We handle between 16,000 to 18,000 passengers every day. Today also the number of passengers is average. There is no heavy rush of the minority community,” the official Twitter handle of the Srinagar Airport posted.

The brazen killing of the bank employee inside the bank premises on Thursday was the eight such killing in the Valley since May 1 and the third of a non-Muslim government employee. Vijay Kumar, a manager with the Ellaqui Dehati Bank at Areh Mohanpora branch in the south Kashmir district, received grievous gunshot injuries and died on his way to hospital.

The latest killing led to a chorus of condemnation from political parties across the spectrum, including the National Conference and the BJP. Kumar, a resident of Hanumangarh in Rajasthan, had joined the Kulgam branch only a week ago. He had earlier been working in the Kokernag branch of the bank, co-owned by the central government, the Jammu and Kashmir administration and the State Bank of India.

In a similar incident on May 31, Rajni Bala, a teacher from Jammu’s Samba district, was shot dead by terrorists at a government school in Gopalpora, Kulgam. On May 12, Rahul Bhat, a clerk, was shot dead inside the tehsildar‘s office in Chadoora tehsil of Budgam district.

The Srinagar Airport’s statement came after videos were posted on social media alleging “heavy rush” of non-locals.

Fear in the Community

Kashmiri Pandits, employed under the PM package, have threatened to undertake mass migration from the Valley if they are not relocated to safe places soon. Employees from the community had hit the streets on Tuesday following Rajni Bala’s killing.

“We have decided that if the government does not take any concrete steps for us (safety) within 24 hours, there will be mass migration again,” one of the protesters said. “We are asking for temporary relocation for two to three years till the situation in the Valley returns to normal.”

A day later, on Wednesday, the Jammu and Kashmir administration decided to “immediately post” all employees under the PM package to “secured locations” by June 6.

“Prime Minister package employees and others from minority communities posted in Kashmir division will be immediately posted at secured locations and the process has to be completed by Monday June 6, 2022,” J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha told officials at a high-level security review meeting.

Crucial Security Meeting

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and RAW chief Samnat Goel met Union Home Minister Amit Shah for over an hour at the latter’s office at North Block on Thursday. Shah is scheduled to chair a high-level meeting on Friday to discuss the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the second such exercise in less than a fortnight.

Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and senior functionaries of the central government and J&K will participate in the meeting which is also expected to take stock of the arrangements for the annual Amarnath Yatra, being held after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the last meeting on June 17, the home minister had advocated pro-active and coordinated counter-terror operations and had asked security forces to ensure zero cross-border infiltration and wipe out terrorism from the Union Territory.

‘Heart-breaking to See Families Destroyed’

“So very sorry to hear about the targeted killing of Vijay Kumar… It’s heartbreaking to see families destroyed like this,” National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah said in a tweet.

Apni Party chief Altaf Bukhari added that it was painful to witness targeted killings of civilians in Kashmir. “These dastardly acts of violence have devastated families… It’s shocking. Will words of condemnation be ever enough?” he wrote on Twitter.

People’s Conference chairman Sajad Lone termed the killing a heinous act and said he was at a loss of words to express his condemnation for such a heinous act. “Yet again extremely sad news coming in. An innocent civilian working as a manager in a bank in Kulgam has been shot dead,” he said on Twitter.

Joining in the condemnation, PDP general secretary Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura said: “Yet another life lost, deeply saddening & condemnable. This place has been turned into a battleground by the high headedness of the admin, its fake claims of normalcy stand unmasked.”

BJP’s J&K spokesperson Altaf Thakur said the killing was a serious issue and a matter of concern. “What a shameful act yet again. This time a bank manager of Ellaqui Dehati Bank Vijay Kumar of Rajashtan (sic) falls to the bullets of terrorists at Kulgam. Now terrorists targeting public servants too. A serious issue and a matter of concern. High time for security agencies to work out a strategy to stop this vicious cycle of violence,” he said.

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