There are 29 Kashmiri Pandits who stay in Baramulla and run their shops with the help of Muslim employees.

BARAMULLA: With idols of several Hindu gods and goddesses - Lakshmi, Durga , Ganesha - resting on a shelf near the cash counter, 27-year-old Ishfaq Ahmad Malik, a salesman, is busy entering sale records at a textile shop in Baramulla 's crowded city ma- rket, nestled against the backdrop of the snow-clad Ghosal Tank hills.

His employer Hridyanath Ganjoo, a Kashmiri Pandit , is away for the Shivratri celebrations in Jammu. "I have been at his shop since 11 years. Each time Hindu festivals come, he leaves for his other home in Jammu. He has been away for the last one month and will come back after Holi. They trust us and we look after their business during this season," says Malik.

Ganjoo's family is among the 29 Kashmiri Pandits who stay in Baramulla and run their shops with the help of Muslims.

The colony near Veerwan, where Pandits live, wears a deserted look as all Pandits celebrate their biggest religious festival - Shivratri - in Jammu where the majority of the Pandits moved to when militancy erupted in the Valley in 1990 and they were targeted.

Residents, shopkeepers and local industry associations, however, reassure that the Pandits who stayed back in Baramulla are safe. "We Muslims felt very bad about migration in 1989...We want that Hindus should come back. We will welcome them back," says Mohammad Ashraf, 65, president, Baramulla Traders Association.

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