Kashmir's militant outfit says it will not allow resettlement of Pandits in Valley

Srinagar: A Kashmiri militant outfit on Sunday said it wouldn’t allow resettlement of Kashmiri Pandits in the proposed separate townships in the Valley ‘come what may.’

The outfit chief Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar who heads Al-Umar Mujahedin group and is reportedly living in Pakistan after he was swapped along with Moulana Masood Azhar and Omar Saeed Sheikh for passengers during the hijack of Indian Airlines IC 814 at Kandahar (Afghanistan) in December 1999, telephoned Deccan Chronicle to say, 'to leave the Valley was their (Kashmiri Pandits’) own decision actually taken at the behest of then Governor of the State Jagmohan Malhotra who wanted to pave the way for mass killing of Kashmiri Muslims but was afraid of possibility of Kashmiri Pandits falling prey to collateral damage. We will not allow them to return in such fashion.

Zargar also said that the only solution of Kashmir problem was through 'armed struggle' or implementation of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. 'Pakistan’s national flag will continue to appear in Kashmir because people love Pakistan and want to make the State a part of that country.'

The Al-Umar chief endorsed Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat Conference faction’s call for one-day strike in the Valley on Thursday to commemorate the death anniversaries of then chief Muslim cleric Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq and Peoples’ Conference chairman Abdul Gani Lone. Unknown gunmen on May 21 in 1990 and 2002 assassinated both, respectively. The authorities had blamed the murders on separatist militants.

The authorities here shrugged Zargar’s statement against resettling Pandits in the Valley off saying 'only purpose of issuing such threats is to remain in news.'