LG Manoj Sinha To The Rescue Of Those Who Lost Their Dear Ones To J&K’s Terrorist Violence

Last Updated:July 14, 2025, 19:40 IST

J&K LG Manoj Sinha's five-pronged plan includes government jobs for needy, loans at low interest rates, speedy hearing of cases, release of land if encroached and helplines

J&K LG Manoj Sinha at the event in Baramulla.

Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has begun a major exercise to heal the wounds of those who lost their loved ones to terrorist violence over the past three-and-a-half decades. The administration is reaching out to these families who have been waiting for justice and help for decades and is going to provide help, including jobs.

Here’s what was done as part of the drive at the North Campus of Kashmir University in Baramulla on Sunday, July 13. The auditorium was packed with women, youth, elderly and children. On the stage, in the presence of Sinha and senior officials, from the Chief Secretary to the DGP, an announcement is made from the stage – “Wajahat will give the welcome speech."

Wajahat speaks his heart out

Wajahat is not the name of any officer, but he is a Kashmiri youth, a resident of Baramulla. He runs a voluntary organisation to reach out to the authorities and administration on behalf of those who lost their loved ones to terrorism that started in the valley in 1989.

He tells what the alliance of leaders and separatists who instigate terrorism to take advantage of the ‘conflict economy’ in Kashmir has done to the families of those who fell prey to terrorism. In many cases, neither was an FIR registered, nor was any compensation given, leave alone government jobs. “These businessmen of terrorism did not believe in wiping the tears of the victims’ families," he said.

“Due to this, the terrorists who killed innocent Kashmiris got jobs, but the families of their victims did not. That too when a special law was made in Jammu and Kashmir was aimed at giving government jobs to the families of the victims of terrorism to help them, so that they could run their household comfortably," he said.

Wajahat is telling with great courage how the terrorists were declared Mujahid and Shaheed in the Kashmir Valley, while the martyrdom of those who fought against terrorism and did not bow down to the terrorists was not only forgotten, but their families were also left at the mercy of God. The limit was reached when the families of the victims of terrorist violence were threatened, they were silenced, they did not even have the courage to raise their voice against injustice.

But the circumstances that arose after the abolition of Article 370 in 2019 started changing the situation for such families, he said.

The first thing was that the attitude of the administration had started changing, the power had gone out of the hands of those who had ruled the politics of Kashmir for decades, and who had played an important role in instigating terrorism and separatism. The reins of power had come into the hands of the central government led by Narendra Modi, which was engaged in changing the picture of Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory. However, it took time for this government to pay attention to such victims of terrorism. The system had become so rotten that all such people were forgotten. The victims of terrorism and their families had become a part of government files and court case papers, a thick layer of dust had settled on them in the form of government neglect.

How Sinha began the drive

After the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, the attention of Sinha suddenly went to such families. Last month, when he was meeting some people in Anantnag, the district in which Pahalgam is located, there was a girl among them, whose ‘SPO’ father was killed by terrorists years ago. On finding the constitutional head of the state in front of her, she could not control her pain and while crying, she narrated the story of the plight of her house, on hearing which Sinha also became emotional. The girl was telling how her father was killed and her mother raised her children by washing utensils and sewing clothes in other people’s houses. None of the family members got a job or any financial help. On the contrary, the terrorist who killed her father got a government job. Sinha was stunned to know this.

For Sinha, the story of this girl’s family was a testimony to how the governments here gave the gift of government jobs to terrorists or their supporters, kept them in the system, the terrorists kept trying to weaken the system with full force and the families who lost their loved ones did not get any help, leave alone a job.

After listening to the girl’s story, Sinha started working on it on a war footing. He immediately called a meeting of senior officials and instructed that all the victim families who lost their loved ones in terrorism should be identified. Such people were not only to be identified, but they were to be given every kind of help as per their need. Sinha’s five-pronged plan includes arrangements for government jobs for the needy, loans at low interest rates if they want to do business, speedy hearing of cases of terrorist violence, release of land if it has been encroached, and special helplines and assistance cells so that the affected families can easily reach the administration for all these tasks.

People like Wajahat have come forward to help Sinha in this mission, who are no longer afraid of terrorists. In the last five-six years, he has seen that now the people associated with law and order have no nexus with terrorists; rather, they are engaged in eliminating them strongly. This is such a system in which terrorists and their supporters are being dug out one by one, they are being dismissed from government jobs. So far, more than 80 such people have been dismissed, who have had links with terrorism. The effect of this changed environment was that within just a few weeks, many such families came forward who had lost their loved ones, but due to the fear of terrorists, they were afraid to express their pain, let alone expect government help.

Stories of pain and loss

After Wajahat’s welcome speech, people started expressing their pain one after the other. Adil Yusuf Sheikh, who came from a village in Kupwara, was telling how the terrorists who entered his house in April 2003 shot his father, mother, minor sister without giving any reason. His mother was also pregnant at that time. Yusuf had to lose all these members of his family together, but there was no relief, no help.

Raja Begum, who also came from Kupwara, was telling how the terrorists who entered her house in 1992 shot her husband Ghulam Hassan, two sons Irshad and Javed along with daughter Dilshada, when this family refused to give them shelter in their house. Raja Begum’s entire family was destroyed, but the system did not pay attention to them.

A similar story was that of Suhail Yusuf Shah, from October 2002, when his mother Haseena and uncle Ghulam Ahmed Shah were shot dead by terrorists in Saugam area, when they asked Ghulam Ahmed to become a terrorist like them and he refused. First the terrorists shot Ghulam Ahmed and when Haseena came in front of them with a glass of water for them, they showered bullets on her too. The terrorists left comfortably, a case was registered, but neither any arrest was made nor any help was received.

Everyone’s story, one more painful than the other. One person narrated how he lost his father, but till date neither did he get a government job nor were his father’s murderers punished. Another told how first his one brother was killed, and then two more were killed. One resident told how the family members of the deceased had to face a lot of trouble even to get the succession certificate.

A young man narrated his story in Hindi-Urdu, a woman spoke about her pain in Kashmiri, a girl spoke in English about how her father suddenly grew up after the murder of his father. An old woman was narrating how her son was murdered and she had to run the house by washing utensils to feed her grandchildren.

All eyes were moist on hearing the stories. While consoling the victim families, Sinha called 40 such people on the stage and gave them government jobs.

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