Kashmiri Pandit employees threaten strike over secure transit housing

A large number of Kashmiri Pandit employees appointed under the Prime Minister’s Package assembled at Press Colony in Srinagar on Wednesday, demanding an immediate end to the long delay in providing secure transit accommodation in the Valley. They have set September 30 as their deadline and warned that they will begin an indefinite protest and hunger strike from October 1 if the demand is not met.

The demonstration came amid fresh threat letters targeting employees recruited under the rehabilitation and employment package.

Several Kashmiri Pandit employees, gathered in the Press Colony, said many of them have been serving in Kashmir for years while still living in rented rooms because completed transit flats have not been handed over in time.

Their principal demand was immediate relocation to secured camps, particularly completed blocks at Zewan in Srinagar, and faster occupation of other ready buildings across transit sites.

Speaking to the media in Srinagar, one Kashmiri Pandit employee, Ashish Razdan, said the community had been given a succession of official deadlines that had slipped. “Our major demand is something we have been raising with the Government for years. We have been here since 2010; it has been 16 years, and we still have not been provided safe accommodation. We have been given deadline after deadline: first April, then May, June, July, August, and now the administration has given us September-end as the deadline. September 30 is our deadline. If our demand is not addressed by then, from October 1 onwards, we will be forced to go on strike, including a hunger strike,” he said. He added that each new threat letter renewed families’ fear.

Some of the employees claimed 29 of 36 buildings planned across seven transit camps in Srinagar had been completed and should be opened at once, while work on the remaining structures should be stepped up.

Against a sanctioned target of 6,000 transit flats, 4,648 had been completed and 1,352 were still under construction as of May 31, 2026; 3,257 had been allotted, but only 881 were occupied. Zewan, the largest Srinagar site, has been a particular flashpoint: hundreds of flats have been allotted on paper while occupation has lagged.

Worried for their safety, these Kashmiri Pandit employees claimed they have been feeling unsafe ever since fresh threat letters have started surfacing on social media platforms.

The threat letters have warned Kashmiri Pandit PM Package employees to quit their jobs or face death, and some have carried names, addresses, phone numbers and vehicle details. Forums representing the employees have written to Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo seeking a security audit of workplaces, transit colonies and rented housing, protection for those named in the threats, an FIR and investigation into the leak of personal data.