The government employees, belonging to the Hindu community, staged a sit-in and blocked the Tawi bridge on the highway here for the third day on Saturday and refused to join their duties in Kashmir following a string of targeted killings by terrorists. They demanded that they should be transferred from Kashmir to their home districts in the Jammu region.
Most Dogra employees serving in Kashmir have returned to Jammu after their colleague, Rajni Bala, was shot dead by terrorists at a school in south Kashmir's Kulgam district on Tuesday. Under the banner of 'All Jammu-based reserved categories employees association', the protesters took out a march from the Press Club and blocked the Tawi bridge on the highway by a sit-in in the area in the heart of the city.
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Raising slogans 'give us justice', and 'Rajni Bala Amar Rahay', they refused to join their duties in Kashmir due to the chain of target killings of Hindus. Rashpal Singh, who was part of the protest, said that they will not return to Kashmir to resume their duties in the prevailing alarming situation following the targeted killings.
"We prefer to die here rather than go back," he said.
Meanwhile, few thousand families of Kashmiri Pandits, who have got jobs in the valley under the Prime Minister’s employment package, have reached here along with their families and said an environment of apprehension is prevalent in the valley owing to the recent spate of targeted killings by terrorists.
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The Pandits said they have heaved a sigh of relief on reaching their township at Jagti in the outskirts of Jammu after spending sleepless nights in their rented accommodations in the Kashmir over the past few weeks.
