Kashmiri Pandit employees in education depts of 2 districts asked to work remotely

Srinagar: In response to the Pahalgam terror attack, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has instructed all minority Kashmiri Pandit employees in the education department—specifically in at least two districts of the Valley—to work remotely.

An order issued on Wednesday (April 23) by the Chief Education Officer (CEO) of Baramulla district in north Kashmir directed Kashmiri Pandit staff, appointed under the Prime Minister’s special rehabilitation package, to work from home for a week.

“All employees engaged under the PM Package are hereby directed to work from home for the duration of this week with immediate effect upto Sunday (i.e. 27-05-2025). All concerned employees shall remain available to carry out their duties and responsibilities,” the order stated without specifying any reason, as reported by the Wire.

A recent directive titled ‘Work From Home’ was issued by the CEO of Anantnag district in south Kashmir on Wednesday, instructing all employees from the minority community to continue working remotely until further notice. 

While the officials did not explicitly mention the reasons behind the order, the timing has drawn attention, coming just a day after a militant attack in the Baisaran meadows of the Pahalgam health resort left 25 domestic tourists from various Indian states and a local horse attendant dead. 

As per government records, approximately 5,500 individuals employed under the Prime Minister’s Special Rehabilitation Package since 2010—mostly assigned to departments like education, revenue, and finance across Jammu and Kashmir—could be impacted by this directive.

The rehabilitation package was introduced by the government led by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during 2008–2009 with the aim of facilitating the return of the minority community to their native regions in Kashmir.

Sources note that after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, a series of targeted killings occurred across the valley, claiming the lives of several Kashmiri Pandits, including some employed under the PM’s package, as well as non-local labourers, the Wire reported.

Many of these attacks were reportedly carried out by The Resistance Front, a group believed to be an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, which has also taken responsibility for the recent Pahalgam incident.

These attacks led to fear and insecurity among the targeted employees, prompting some of them to leave the Valley and return to places like Jammu, New Delhi, and other parts of the country where they had previously settled with their families during the mass migration following the onset of insurgency in the early 1990s.