Sajad Lone says police verification a collective punishment for youth in Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference chief and MLA from Handwara of northern Kashmir Sajad Lone on Thursday said that police verification for both government and private jobs has degenerated into a form of collective punishment for youth.

Lone alleged that the ongoing budget session of the assembly which concluded its first phase on Thursday conveniently ignored police verification issue which impacts the lives of youth ,

“Police verification has degenerated into a form of collective punishment. If one person in your family has committed a mistake, then hundreds of youth associated with that family are denied police clearance,” said Lone. He cited a case from Baramullah district of northern Kashmir, where a young man who had secured a job worth ₹2 lakhs in Hyderabad but was denied clearance on the grounds that his uncle was allegedly “an overground worker” of militants.


“The reality was that this uncle had himself been killed by an overground militant. Despite this, the application was rejected,” said Lone.

In many cases Lone said, the applicants seeking verification were born after the death of the person because of whom they are being punished. “Are they not Indians? What will they do now? Even medical graduates were being caught in the net, unable to practice despite years of study,” he lamented.

He urged Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to take up the matter with the government in Delhi, while sarcastically referring to his praises for the BJP led central government. “CM goes often, expressing his gratitude so many times that even the BJP doesn’t thank the PM as much as he does. At least go and tell them that our children are suffering,” Lone said.

The PC chief said that these were very bad times for people of the Union Territory. “Article 370 is gone, 35A is gone, the assembly is gone, we became a UT. There is a toxic environment. Whatever this government does today can be used against us,” said Lone.