Srinagar (NVI): It is generally perceived that Kashmiri Muslims hate India and don’t want to live with India. This perception, fuelled by Pakistan and its proxies in Kashmir, has been smashed recently, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
After the deadly pandemic struck and a nationwide lockdown was announced from March 25, it came to light that Kashmiris have been living in all corners of the country, and that too in large numbers. They have been quietly studying or earning their livelihood through business etc, across the country, including in Nagpur, which houses the headquarters of RSS.
These details came to the fore during the exercise initiated by the Jammu and Kashmir government, with the help of central government, to evacuate the residents of the Union Territory stranded at various places in the country. As of today, 1,07,970 such people were evacuated by road and special trains.
It is significant to mention here that the central government went out of its way to run extra special trains to ferry stranded residents of Jammu and Kashmir to their home in the Union Territory, even while thousands of their counterparts from states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had to hitch rides on trucks or even walk on foot for hundreds of kilometers in the absence of adequate number of trains and buses.
As per the official data, the administrations of Jammu and Kashmir districts have received 41 special trains at Jammu and Udhampur railway stations from different states and UTs, so far, with about 32,649 stranded passengers while about 75,321 persons have been evacuated by the government by road via the Lakhanpur border with Punjab.
As per the detailed break-up, 21 trains have reached Jammu with a total of 17,009 stranded passengers belonging to different districts while 15,640 passengers have reached Udhampur in 20 special trains, so far.
As per the official communiqué, of the 75,321 returnees evacuated through Lakhanpur, 19507 were brought from Punjab, 22,113 from Himachal Pardesh, 25 from Andhra Pradesh, 7054 from Delhi, 1411 from Gujarat, 3362 from Rajasthan, 4374 from Haryana, 162 from Chhattisgarh, 3640 from Uttarakhand, 4742 from Uttar Pradesh, 64 from Odisha, 268 from Assam and 1199 from Madhya Pradesh, 88 from Dehradun, 1437 from Chandigarh, 698 from Telangana, 122 from Karnataka, 23 from Tamilnadu, 52 from Chennai, 325 from Bihar, 166 from West Bengal, 113 from Jharkhand, 3 from Goa and 3271 from other states and UTs.
Nearly 4000 J&K residents, including over 1200 students, were evacuated from Maharashtra by Shramik special trains. The process to evacuate J&K residents from Maharashtra by Shramik Special Trains began formally on May 14 with first such train ferrying around 1000 people from Nagpur to J&K. The train carried J&K residents stranded in Nagpur and adjoining districts of Akola, Wardha, Aurangabad, Yavatmal, Amrawati, Raigad, Gondia, Nashik, Washim, Bhandara, Phalgar, Buldana, Akola and Latur, according to official data.
It was followed by another Shramik Special Train carrying 1000 J&K residents, including 500 students, from Pune on May 19. The train carried J&K residents stranded in Pune and adjoining districts of Satara, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Dhule, Nanded, Buldana and Jalgaon.
Another 700 J&K residents, including 100 students, were brought from Thane railway station by Shramik Special train on May 22. The train carried J&K residents who were stranded in Navi Mumbai, Raigad and other adjoining areas.
One more Shramik train brought around 600 stranded persons of J&K, including 200 students, from Bandra Terminus, Mumbai on May 23. The train carried the J&K residents, who were mostly stranded in two key districts of Mumbai city and Mumbai suburban.
These stranded persons evacuated by Special Trains included patients, students, traders, handicraft vendors, labourers, private security guards and employees from banks, private sector and the government.
By May 24, the total number of J&K residents evacuated from Maharashtra, along with Kerala and Goa in the south-western region by seven Shramik Special Trains, was around 6000 including around 1300 students.
In this region, around 800 J&K residents including 35 students, were evacuated by Special Shramik Train from Kerala on May 20. Similarly, around 1800 J&K residents, including 17 students were evacuated by 2 Special Shramik Trains from Goa on May 10 & 12.
The evacuation process is continuing and more such people are expected to be ferried home from various parts of India.
