[Reader-list] No Kashmiri migrant has returned to Valley: J&K Minister

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

No Kashmiri migrant has returned to Valley: MinisterIANS

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,” Mr. Bhalla said in a
written reply in the assembly Friday to a question by Hakim Mohammad Yaseen,
an independent legislator.

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.