Jammu & Kashmir: Militancy Victims To Get Fresh Help With Job Offers

A few months after his son, who had freshly joined duty in the police as a sub-inspector, was shot dead by a gunman in September 2021 in Srinagar, Mohd Ashraf, 58, a teacher, approached the authorities for a job for another child under the scheme to rehabilitate the families of militancy victims.

For over three years, he ran from pillar to post, filing applications and following up on the matter with the police and civil administration, but to no avail. Ashraf’s son, Arshid Ahmad, was fired upon from close range by a militant in the Khanyar area of Srinagar and was rushed to the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, is in an injured condition. The police officer, however, succumbed to injuries at the hospital.

Last month, Ashraf, however, became hopeful that their file for a job in the government would get cleared after Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha opened a dedicated helpline and a web portal for the victims of militancy in several districts of Kashmir. The authorities have promised to lodge FIRs where no police cases were registered earlier.

The LG also said the government would expedite the removal of encroachments on the property of the militancy victim families and provide jobs to the next of kin of those who were killed. LG has asked the family members to submit job applications to the concerned Deputy Commissioners, assuring a speedy process of appointment.

“In cases where FIRs were not registered, directions will be given to register FIRs in those cases. Action will also be taken to free the land,” LG said at a function in Srinagar last month as he met the families of militant victims. As per the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) statistics, since the onset of militancy in J&K in the 1990s, over 14,000 civilians and 5,000 security force personnel have lost their lives.

The government has, however, maintained that there has been a reduction in the number of civilians and security force personnel who have been killed in militancy-related incidents. From 2004 to 2014,  2829 security personnel and civilians were killed in Kashmir, while the number from 2014 to 2023 was  891. Those killed by the militants were mostly political workers, retired security force personnel or police informants

LG Manoj Sinha has maintained a rigid posture against militancy and even terminated the services of employees who had any of their relatives associated with the separatists. Dismissal of such employees has, however, drawn criticism from political parties who have argued that this was done arbitrarily after such terminations came without holding proper inquiries. These termination orders have been issued under Article 311 of the Constitution of India, under which the government was not required to maintain any inquiry in matters involving anti-India activities.

The fresh policy of LG Sinha has come in reversal of the previous ones that earlier governments in Kashmir had framed that sought to rehabilitate militants with monetary assistance, who would have surrendered and joined the mainstream.  The government of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had, in its previous stint, announced a policy in 2010 for militants to return from Pakistan to lead everyday lives.

The LG announced the fresh measures to assist the militancy victim families only days before the end of his five-year term in August. Officials manning the help lines said that they have received a large number of calls from people complaining of a delay in receiving the compensation they were due under the government policy.

Ashraf said that after the death of his son, who was shot dead by militants in the old city area of Srinagar, he approached the government departments for a suitable job for his other son. “My son joined the police service in June 2019. His training continued for a relatively longer time due to COVID-19, and a few months after he was deployed in the service, he was shot dead by the militants. We have been seeking for my son to get a job, but there has been no progress in the case,” he said.

Ashraf said that the job got delayed as the authorities didn’t provide the family with a dependency certificate, as his son was unmarried. The family, however, submitted the next of kin (NOK) certificate along with the job application form to the police department and district administration in Kupwara, where the family originally lives. “My son was not married, so we didn’t get the dependency certificate. But now that the LG has promised that our issues will be resolved, I have submitted a fresh application,” said Ashraf.

Shahid Shabir, 22, was in Delhi,  working in the supplies department of a garment manufacturing company,  when his relatives informed him that his grandmother had fallen ill and that he should return immediately to Kashmir. He said that he flew home in March 2022 and was astonished to know that his father, Shabir Ahmad Mir, a sarpanch in South Kashmir’s Kulgam,  had been shot dead by militants. Shabir was fired upon from close range in the evening hours and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.  He had chosen to stay back in his home district, Kulgam, after a developmental meeting instead of returning to a high-security facility in Rajbagh, meant for people who face militant threats. It was this decision that, Shahid said, cost his father his life. Later, a militant from his home, Odura, who killed his father along with two of his associates, was arrested and remains in the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Shahid said that he remained unemployed after he left a job in Delhi to take care of his family of two siblings and mother, and had no means to survive.  He, however, said that even as he pursued the matter with the authorities by visiting different government departments and meeting officials, he had not been able to get the job. Recalling the incident of the death of his father, Shahid said, “I was in Delhi working with a garment manufacturing company on the supplies side and had lost my phone. My relatives called the number of one of my friends and told me that my grandmother was ill, and I flew to Srinagar. But it was a scene of total disbelief as I came across the body of my father, draped in a shroud.”

“My father was working as a sarpanch, and I would earn around Rs 15000 in Delhi. Now I am not working as I have to take care of my family. Now, with the LG administration promising rehabilitation of militancy victim families, I have written a fresh application to the concerned authorities,” said Shahid. No government help has come to the family of sarpanch Sameer Ahmad Bhat, who was shot dead by a militant who lived in the closer vicinity of their neighbourhood in the Khonmoh area of Srinagar.

According to the family members, Sameer was inside his room when he was called out by his militant neighbour. As soon as he had stepped out of his home, he was sprayed with bullets. On March 8, 2022, the sarpanch was fired upon indiscriminately, resulting in his death. His brother Firdous Ahmad Bhat, however, said that he was not aware of any initiative undertaken by the LG administration to help out the militancy victims with jobs and other assistance. “ We have little hope as we have run from pillar to post seeking a job, but nothing has been done in this regard,” said Firdous, adding that his late brother was survived by a wife who has, however, now remarried.

According to officials manning a helpline in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, they have received mainly calls from people seeking jobs and complaining about the pendency of years. Officials manning several help lines said that they have also received calls regarding the reopening of cases in which no cases were registered, but such claims are being verified. “In most cases, FIRs have been registered,” said an official