Displaced Kashmiri Pandits urge Central government to initiate serious dialogue

Jammu: Marking 25 years of their exile, the displaced Kashmiri Pandits on Monday urged the Central government to initiate a serious dialogue with the community leadership for its resettlement in Jammu and Kashmir.

"We appeal to government of India to initiate a serious dialogue with the leadership of the displaced community for its resettlement in the valley keeping in view their geo-political aspirations," Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo, President, Panun Kashmir, an organisation representing Kashmiri Pandits said.

Speaking on the 25th anniversary of the Holocaust Day on Monday, marking their migration from the Valley in 1990, Chrungoo stated that the community has "first and natural right" over the territory of Kashmir.

"We would return only when our geo-political aspirations as per Margdarshan resolution are fulfilled through political and constitutional means," he said.

"The community was made the selected victim of terror and terrorism, murder and mayhem on a large scale resulting in its mass exodus from the valley.

"Genocide against the Kashmiri Pandit was used as a strong weapon to achieve ethnic cleansing by the fundamentalists and terrorists in Kashmir valley," he added.

Chrungoo said that diatribe against the community by separatist forces in Kashmir remains unabated despite complete banishment of the Pandits in Kashmir.

"It is the secessionist and terrorist forces who were responsible for the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits. The occasion today reminds the country that the indigenous people of Kashmir, the Kashmiri Pandits continue to live as refugees in their own country", Panun Kashmir Chief said.

"Immediately after its forced mass exodus, all efforts to dismember, disperse and break the community's homogeneity were unleashed by various forces," he said.

The Chief also noted that persistent efforts were made to "keep the community out of the politico-administrative setup of the state" thus enforcing it to get dispersed in due course of time. The grave human rights violations that the Pandits have been subjected to need no semantics to prove, he said.

"The Kashmiri Pandit community has a lot of expectations from the Central government and the new dispensation that will emerge in due course of time in the state," Chrungoo said.

The organisation also called for the early passage of the Kashmiri Temples and Shrines Bill in the state legislature. We also extend our full support to the cause of Pak and PoK refugees keeping in view the recommendations made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, he said.

A Parliamentary Panel had recently expressed serious concern over the restricted voting rights of West Pakistani refugees and observed that they must have the right to elect and get elected in all representative bodies to enhance the strength of democracy.