The migrant Kashmiri Pandit employees yesterday intensified their months-old protest demanding transfer from the Valley following Lt Governor Manoj Sinha’s remark of stopping their salaries.

The protesters also said that it was best for the government to sack them as they would not rejoin their services in the Valley in the absence of proper security following the publication of a hit-list of Lashkar-e-Taiba-affiliated Kashmiri Pandit employees. .

Migrant Kashmiri Pandits and Jammu-based reserved category employees left the Valley in May following the targeted killings of two colleagues. They are demanding rehabilitation outside Kashmir.

Earlier in the day, Sinha insisted that all necessary measures have been taken to ensure the safety of employees belonging to the minority community, including Kashmiri Pandits, in the Valley and sent a “loud and clear” message to those seeking transfers – to sit No salary at home.

“We have paid their (the protesting employees) salary till August 31, but it cannot be done that they will be paid sitting at their homes. This is a loud and clear message to them and they must hear and understand it.

In response to this, Kashmiri Pandit employees employed under the Prime Minister’s rehabilitation package in the Valley demonstrated in front of the Press Club in Jammu.

Carrying placards depicting the administration’s “step-motherly treatment” towards them, they also raised slogans in support of their transfer.

“It is an unfortunate statement. It is better for the government to sack all of us. We will not go to the Valley to join services. Our lives are more important than jobs,” a protester told reporters.

He said that if the government wants to stop his salary, it is free to do so.

“Our salary should be used for nation building,” he said.

The protester also said that Kashmiri Pandit employees cannot be made a symbol of peace and normality in Kashmir.

“We are in this situation because of the situation created by the government. We were living in the valley for the last decade. But now a hit list is being issued to kill us. Do you want me to go to Kashmir and get killed? He asked.

He was referring to a blog linked to The Resistance Front, an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has released a separate list of Kashmiri Pandit employees recruited under the Prime Minister’s rehabilitation package and has described their transit colonies as “graveyards”. Threatened to convert.

“Who will protect us? The administration has failed to protect us from selective killings,” said another protester.

“…we want the government to assure us that no Kashmiri Pandit will be targeted by terrorists in future. If they are not in a position to give such assurance, then please accept our demand and transfer us out of Kashmir.”