In the light of the Resolution passed and adopted by the J&K Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council regarding the displacement and return of the Kashmiri Pandit community, Panun Kashmir releases the following statement:
Panun Kashmir notes with satisfaction that for the first time the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council of the Jammu and Kashmir state have acknowledged the Holocaust of the displaced community. It is important to note that the government of the Jammu and Kashmir state and the political class have also recognised that the Kashmiri Pandits are the primary stakeholders to the territory of Kashmir. That the honourable law makers of the state have taken cognizance of the fact that the Kashmiri Pandit community is in exile for the last twenty seven years is tantamount to recognising the struggle of the community which is living as refugees in its own country. While it is some satisfaction to note that the political class of the J&K state has a remembrance of the Holocaust of the displaced community yet it has failed to identify the reasons for the ethnic cleansing of the community. It has also not spelt out the forces that were responsible for the mass exodus of the Kashmiri Pandit community from the Kashmir valley.
The Resolution while talking about the return of the Pandits is unfortunately silent about the geopolitical aspirations of the displaced community. This Resolution comes in the wake of a similar resolution passed by the Madhya Pradesh Assembly in 2009 wherein the plight and human rights violations committed against the community were highlighted. We appeal to the political class of the nation to pass similar resolutions in the various state Assemblies recognising the geo-political aspirations of the Kashmiri Pandit community. This would also lend strength and support to the struggle of the Pandits for the reclamation of their Homeland in Kashmir.
We have also noted that there have been voices opposing the resettlement of the Pandits in the valley after the passing of the said Resolution in the state Assembly. The Hurriyat Conference and their cohorts have no business to oppose the indigenous people of Kashmir, the Kashmiri Pandits. All those who have been taking dictations from Pakistan’s ISI cannot dictate to the primary stakeholders regarding their mode of resettlement in Kashmir. They have no locus standi to issue diktats and set conditions. Kashmiri Pandits have the first and an inalienable right on the territory of Kashmir and would not subjugate to any design of Muslim precedence. The separatist terrorist combine has been responsible for the genocide and exodus of the Pandits in Kashmir. We demand that special tribunal be established and cases against all those who have committed crimes against humanity in Kashmir.
Panun Kashmir unequivocally reiterates the demand for the establishment of a separate Homeland on the north and east of the river Jehlum (Vitasta) with free flow of Indian constitution and without the stifling influence of Article 370. This alone would mitigate the sufferings of the last 600 years that the Kashmiri Pandits have undergone for generations.
Source : Press Release by Panun Kashmir
