Press Trust of india

Migrant workers fleeing Kashmir throng railway stations, bus stands; Parties ask administration to step up security

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However, a good chunk decides to stay put

Jammu/Srinagar: Thousands of migrant workers who fled Kashmir along with their families queued up outside ticket counters at railway stations and bus stops in Jammu and Udhampur on Tuesday, while more were leaving the Valley as the targeted killing of such labourers in recent weeks triggered a fresh exodus.

The opposition Congress hit out at the Modi government, alleging it has proved to be a “complete failure in controlling the violence and providing security in Kashmir”, while the BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir unit said the administration must take “visibly concrete steps to ensure the safety of soft targets in Kashmir, including poor labourers and street vendors from other states”.

Officials said that security in and around the railway stations and bus stands in Jammu and Udhampur and in Kashmir has been beefed up as a precautionary measure as people have been arriving in large numbers desperate to leave.

Outside the Jammu railway station, men, women and children were waiting with their meagre belongings on the roadside in long queues without water or shelter.

The exodus started after the killing of Sageer Ansari from Saharanpur (UP) in Pulwama on October 16 and that of Raja Reshi Dev and Joginder Rishi Dev –  both from Bihar- in adjacent Kulgam on October 17 triggered panic among workers from other states, especially those working in the volatile south Kashmir region.

Eleven civilians were killed in targeted attacks in Jammu and Kashmir this month alone.

Various parties from across the political spectrum have condemned the killings.

An estimated three to four lakh migrant labourers from different parts of the country come to the Valley every year in early March for skilled and unskilled jobs such as masonry, carpentry and farming, and go back home before the onset of winter in November. This year, however, several are choosing to go back earlier.

The non-locals, engaged in apple orchards, and cardboard and bat factories, used to spend around six months in the Valley before returning home, an official said.

Another official from the security establishment claimed that around 600 people from south Kashmir have already moved towards safer places.

Trains are the preferred route out of the Valley with many saying they will ensure their safety.

About 50 migrant labourers, many of them from Bihar, arrived at the Nowgam railway station late on Monday night from nearby Budgam district where they worked in brick kilns.

“We spent the night in the open but we felt more secure due to the presence of security forces guarding the railway station,” Mithilesh Kumar told PTI at the station on Tuesday.

“We are leaving Kashmir earlier than usual… There is too much fear, ” he added.

“Nobody told us to leave but who will be responsible if someone among us gets killed. One moment we are told security will be provided and the next we are on our own,” said Deepak Kumar,  a resident of Bihar’s Madhubani district.

Scores of migrant labourers and their families who reached Jammu said they have experienced “hell” in the last couple of weeks may not ever come back to Kashmir after the ordeal.

“I am very unhappy leaving the valley. This has become hell. We come here to earn for our families not to get killed on streets,” said Chintu Singh from Chhattisgarh, who had been working for four-five months every year in the Valley for over a decade now and is leaving along with a group of 20 Hindu labourers working in a brick kiln in Pulwama district.

There were also reports of migrant labourers from other parts of the Valley leaving in taxis and buses early in the morning.

However, hundreds could also be seen at major intersections in Srinagar, hoping to be hired for work.

Hawal Chowk, rechristened Bihari Chowk by city dwellers, has not witnessed any significant decrease in the number of migrant workers there.

The first migrant worker — Virender Paswan — was shot dead by militants in Hawal area.

The scenes were no different at Rambagh, less than two kilometres from where prominent Kashmiri Pandit businessman Makhan Lal Bindroo was shot dead at point-blank range in his shop earlier this month.

The workers at Nowgam station praised the locals and said they ensured the group reached the station safely.

“People of Kashmir are kind but few people do politics and the masses have to suffer,” Deepak Kumar said.

Sooraj, a resident of Bihar working at a garment shop in Srinagar, has already packed his bags and is leaving the Valley soon.

Javed, who is from Hapur in Uttar Pradesh and works at a saloon, is also planning to leave.

“Fear is in the air. My owner takes care of me but he can’t be with me 24-hours. My other friends working elsewhere have already moved out of the Valley. Unfortunately, I have to start something afresh,” he said.

The Congress said that innocents are being killed or forced to leave Jammu and Kashmir.

“There is exodus of hope from Jammu and Kashmir. The Modi government, which speaks all the time of security, is missing,” party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.

Jammu and Kashmir BJP spokesperson and former legislator Girdhari Lal Raina said they were not satisfied with the security measures.

“We ask the Union Territory administration to take visibly concrete steps to ensure the safety of soft targets in Kashmir, including poor labourers and street vendors, from other states,” he said.

He said that “(we are) not satisfied with the security measures, amidst continuing targeting of hapless workers, who are fleeing to protect their lives and honour”.

Question of survival stares at migrant workers’ families

Srinagar/Saharanpur:  How to make both ends meet? That is the question haunting Jehangir Ansari, a small-time carpenter in Saharanpur whose father was shot dead by suspected militants in Kashmir, leaving him grappling with grief and also an uncertain, bleak future with few work prospects.

Sageer Ansari was gunned down on Saturday in south Kashmir’s Litter village where he had been working as a carpenter for the last couple of years, one in the spate of targeted civilian killings in the Valley that has triggered an exodus of migrant labourers who are queuing up outside bus and train stations to return home.

“Together with Abba (father), we used to run the household. Now I am wondering what to do as there is not much work over here and I can’t think of taking up his job over there (Kashmir),” Jehangir told PTI over the phone from Saharanpur.

Naseem, Sageer Ansari’s younger brother, said they received a call asking them to collect the body.

“We received a call that Sageer bhai is no more, and we were asked to collect his body from Jammu. We left that very moment and did the needful, and brought his body home,” he said.

He made it clear that the body was brought from Jammu to Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh by the family as the Jammu and Kashmir administration had not made any arrangements to send it.

“Together with my father, we used to manage an income of around Rs 15,000 per month, but now after his death, I have no idea how to pull the family together,” said Jehangir, who himself is married and has a small daughter.

Recalling his conversation with his father, he said Sageer was very happy working in Kashmir and often praised his employer who used his services for manufacturing bats and other wooden items.

However, the death of Sageer in Pulwama on October 16 and then two more non-locals — Raja Reshi Dev and Joginder Rishi Dev — in adjacent Kulgam on October 17 triggered a panic reaction among labourers from other states working in the volatile south Kashmir region.

The non-locals, engaged in apple orchards, and cardboard and bat factories, used to spend around six months in the Valley before returning home, an official said.

Another official from the security establishment claimed that around 600 people from south Kashmir have already moved towards safer places.

“Killing an unknown person creates more fear psychosis than killing a known individual, and I am afraid that the terrorists may have achieved that,” the official, who chose to remain anonymous, said.

Sooraj, a resident of Bihar working at a garment shop here, has already packed his bags and is leaving the Valley soon. “I have no idea as I used to earn my livelihood from the shop and my owner was also nice. However, now I am stepping into a bleak future ahead of me,” he said.

Javed, who is from Hapur in Ghaziabad and works at a saloon here, is also planning to leave. “Fear is in the air. My owner takes care of me but he can’t be with me 24 hours. My other friends working elsewhere have already moved out of the Valley. Unfortunately, I have to start something afresh,” he added.

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