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Kashmir Sikhs demand migrant status

Chindu Sreedharan in Srinagar

The Sikhs of Kashmir Valley have demanded that they be granted migrant status and be shifted to Jammu, like it was done with the Kashmiri Pandits in 1990.

A memorandum presented to Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and Governor G C Saxena by the Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee at Mehjoor Nagar in Srinagar on Monday, said the minority community was feeling unsafe in the wake of Saturday's massacre.

A final decision on the matter, said Harcharan Singh, secretary of the Mehjoor Nagar GPC, will be announced on February 11, after a committee of prominent Sikhs held talks with the government.

Both Abdullah and Saxena have requested the community not to leave, and promised to make security arrangements in all the villages.

The CM and governor were in tension-filled Mehjoor Nagar to review the situation there, after gunmen killed six Sikhs and injured five on Saturday. A central team, led by Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Minister of State for Civil Aviation Chamanlal Gupta reached the spot a little later.

Hundreds of Sikhs around the gurdwara shouted anti-government slogans as the chief minister and governor arrived in an impressive motorcade. They said not only militants but even the civil administration and the media had targeted them.

"Open for us a migration counter like the state government has done for the Pandits," they requested the CM, "And give us the same benefits."

Governor Saxena's address was drowned out when he tried to dissuade the Sikhs from leaving.

"We don't want to become sacrificial lambs," was the common refrain from the crowd.

Saxena's line, which sought to claim that Sikhs alone were not the target, presented statistics of killed security personnel and Muslims -- this, of course, didn't go down well with the crowd.

"We are fighting a difficult war and we should be ready for many more sacrifices," Saxena said. The crowd booed.

"We cannot stop you from migrating, but you should be ready to face difficulties in Jammu," he added, leading to more heckling.

Dr Abdullah began cautiously. He spoke of militancy and Pakistan's plan to separate Kashmir from India and then went on to blame New Delhi for extending the cease-fire.

The militants, he continued, were trying every possible way to create panic in Kashmir. This was one such tactic.

"Pakistan wants you to demand migration," he said, "You should not play into their hands."

At which, the crowd again took up their chant of 'We want migration'.

"I understand you all want to migrate, and I won't stop you," he continued, "But this is your land and you must remain here. We need to fight militancy united."

A little later, as the crowd turned uproarious, Dr Abdullah played his trump card: he attacked the local media's claim that the killings were in retaliation to the murder of Bilal Ahmad Khan, an auto-rickshaw driver, who was reportedly picked up by two "Sikh police personnel".

"What proof do they have that they were Sikhs?" he asked, and the crowd roared in agreement. "Anybody can put on a beard and play a Sikh."

Dr Abdullah again requested the minority population to stay back and promised to provide security in all Sikh villages.

Dhindsa, for his part, suggested that a committee of prominent Sikhs be formed, and a final decision be taken after discussions with the Centre and state governments.

As the meeting, which was on for nearly three hours, wound up and the VIPs began to leave, Dr Abdullah was booed and hooted. And despite the tight security in the area, a slipper and stones landed on his vehicle.

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