Politics
Kashmiri Pandit Organisation Demands Separate Union Territory
Swarajya Staff
Sep 05, 2016, 03:53 PM | Updated 03:53 PM IST
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As an all-party delegation visited Jammu and Kashmir on 3 September, a renowned Kashmiri Pandit organisation called Panun Kashmir demanded carving out a separate Union Territory for the community in the Valley so that they could be permanently rehabilitated.
The organisation said that any alternative solution would be unacceptable to the Pandits. In the words of the convenor of Panun Kashmir, Agnishekhar,
We want the entire political class of India to recognise the need of carving out a Union Territory of Panun Kashmir north and east of river Jhelum for the rehabilitation of internally displaced Hindus of Kashmir…In Kashmir, there is total rejection of coexistence, and genocidal war on Hindus is continuing unabated. Kashmir has become a den of religious fascism and anti-India rebellion and to defeat it dividing Kashmir has become a necessity…
Identifying Kashmir as an ‘ungoverned zone’, the organisation requested the delegation earnestly to reject any form of negotiation with the separatists. Agnishekhar said,
We ask the government of India to desist from encouraging soft separatists and recognise the reality that present seditious unrest has been a result of accommodating soft separatism.….It is a national responsibility of all the leaders of the all-party delegation to recognise that soft-separatist enterprise has acted as an over ground support structure to the religious fascist upsurge in Kashmir valley…
Cries for “azadi” in Kashmir, as demanded by the separatists, gave way to a movement which saw the eviction and ethnic cleansing of the Pandits from the Valley. So far little has been done to heal the wounds inflicted on them.
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