JAMMU: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Monday handed over appointment letters to 37 next of kin (NoKs) of victims of terrorism from Jammu division at the Convention Centre, Jammu, reiterating his administration’s commitment to ensuring justice, dignity and rehabilitation for affected families.
Appointment letters were also handed over to 29 NoKs of government employees who lost their lives in service, as well as beneficiaries in age-relaxation cases under the Jammu and Kashmir Rehabilitation Assistance Scheme-2022 and SRO-43.
Paying tribute to the victims of terrorism, the Lieutenant Governor said the administration would take the strongest action against the terror ecosystem and its supporters, asserting that there would be no safe haven left for terrorists or networks backing them in Jammu and Kashmir.
“I pledge to the families of terror victims that we will work with full commitment to secure their dignified and honourable lives. We will discharge every duty towards them with utmost seriousness, and we will not rest until justice reaches every family,” Sinha said.
He said justice for terror victim families was not limited to punishing the guilty, but also involved healing their wounds and restoring their dignity.
“Justice also lies in which stories society chooses to remember. Justice also means wiping the tears of grieving families, acknowledging their pain, and healing the wounds inflicted on their souls. Justice also means that the stories of terror-victim families, once forgotten, are now being rewritten with renewed memory and honour,” he said.
Describing the present moment as a decisive turning point for Jammu and Kashmir, the Lieutenant Governor said the youth of the Union Territory and terror victim families aspired to a better future and a dignified life.
“We stand at a decisive turning point in J&K today. The youth of the Union Territory and terror victim families aspire to a bright future and wish to live a better life. It is our shared responsibility to make that future a reality and create the opportunities they deserve,” he said.
Issuing a stern warning to what he described as the remaining elements of the terror ecosystem and “conflict entrepreneurs”, Sinha said their era was over.
“The people of Jammu Kashmir know fully well who shielded such terror elements, but that shield is now crumbling. I warn them that there is no longer any safe haven in Jammu Kashmir for terrorists or the networks that support them,” he said.
The Lieutenant Governor said his administration was committed to ensuring that every terror victim family received justice, jobs, recognition and institutional support after years of neglect and suffering.
He said terror victim families had remained erased from society’s memory for decades and described their neglect by the system as not merely an administrative lapse, but “a civilisational failure”.
Sinha said the harassment faced by such families at the hands of terror-linked elements reflected not just injustice, but a collapse of social morality.
He said those who were part of the terror ecosystem and had infiltrated government machinery in the past would face legal action, be removed from government service and punished in accordance with law.
“Those directly linked to terrorism are being dismissed from service, while decades-long neglected terror-victim families are being given government jobs to secure their economic and social dignity. I see this not merely as a policy correction, but as a new moral declaration for a new Jammu Kashmir,” he said.
Calling it the arrival of a “new order”, the Lieutenant Governor said the administration would act firmly against those linked to terrorism while fulfilling its duty towards victims.
“This is a clear message that a new order has arrived, one that will punish mercilessly those tied to terrorism and will firmly fulfil its duties to restore the dignity of victims. This moral declaration is the announcement of a system that defines justice not only in words, but in deeds,” he added.
Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor, Dr Mandeep K. Bhandari; Commissioner Secretary, General Administration Department, M Raju; Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Ramesh Kumar; Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Dr Rakesh Minhas; senior officials, members of various social organisations and family members of victims of terrorism were present on the occasion.
