Kashmiri Pandit colonies in Valley safe, fenced and gated: ‘It’s like dividing us again’

by

Written by Basharat Masood, Nirupama Subramanian | Pulwama | Updated: January 31, 2020 1:48:37 pm

The transit accommodation at Sheikhpora in Budgam. Over 500 families live in this gated colony. (Express photo: Shuaib Masoodi)

A high concrete wall, topped by a metal sheet running over its entire length. Concertina wire provides the finishing touch. The gates are shut and bolted from inside. J&K police and Special Operations Group personnel guard the premises. Inside are rows of small identical single-storey homes with red sloping roofs and painted yellow windows, all pre-fab structures made of asbestos sheets.

It is a gated community even realtors would hesitate to promote, but this, and five others across Kashmir Valley — three of them concrete three-storeyed structures — are the most visible experiments of “return” for Pandits who fled the Valley in 1990, threatened by a militancy that had just then turned full-blown.