Panun Kashmir exposes the return game-plan

KS Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 21: At a press conference here today, Panun Kashmir, a frontline organisation of Kashmiri Pandits charged that Mufti government was communal and its policies were biased towards the Kashmiri Pandits. Mr Kuldeep Raina, General Secretary of the organisation, described the proposed settlements at Tulmulla and Mattan as concentration camps. He asked the government "to prove its credentials before shifting the community to two concentration camps in the Valley".

PK leader made a scathing attack on government's policies, which he alleged have only fuelled violence. He said the chief minister should clarify whether he has established any channel with terrorists on the basis of which he was shifting the displaced people to two camps in the Valley. The government should also let the people know the credentials of the Moulvi on whose assurance the chief minister has initiated this step, he added.

Mr Kuldeep Raina said there were conflicting statements regarding the terrorist violence in Kashmir. While the government claims the terrorist violence has come down, the intelligence reports were contrary to it. He quoted Dr Farooq Abdullah, who had said that Al Qaeda elements in Valley could attack Pandits once they moved to the Valley. Raina wanted to know what confidence-building measures Mufti government hasinitiated for Pandit community. He suggested that before talking of return plan, the state government should take measures to improve the living condition of Pandits, still holding on in Kashmir.

Panun Kashmir leader quoted chapter and verse to show how the present state government has beaten all records in working against the Pandit community. He said the state education department has ignored nearly 150 Pandit teachers in promotions which were made recently; the seniority criteria was not followed for the first time in past thirty years.

Contesting the chief minister's claim that Kashmiri Pandits have given in writing that they wanted to return to their homes and hearths, the PK leader wanted to know the names of such people. He, however, maintained that the government's attempt to bribe the disgruntled elements would not solve the problem of exodus. He called government's return plan a conspiracy to destabilise Pandits. He declared Kashmiri Hindus will not be a party to any venture that seeks to camouflage communalism, adding "we would participate in all national efforts to fight the subversive war being waged against the nation and Hindus but would never submit or contribute to it".

Fearing that in the given scenario any attempt for their return is fraught with danger, Mr Raina said, all such efforts in a myopic framework would only result in a "bloody pre-emptive backlash".

Commenting upon the history of migration, Dr MK Teng, chairman Advisory committee suggested that the restoration of Kashmiri Pandits in the state could only be done by the method of reversal of genocide. He alleged that the state government was just pretending to tell the union government about the onward process to restore peace in the J&K. Making a strong dig at the state government, Dr MK Teng said it has shifted emphasis from crushing terrorism to Kashmir issue. He added that the coalition government was attempting to tell the people of India that the process of democratization and building secular society were irrelevant to restoration of peace in the state. Prof. Teng observed that this government was giving an impression that like the elections in 1977, the last year elections were conducted freely and in a fair manner and the process of democracy has started in the state and hence the Indian government should move further to open negotiations with terrorist regime.

Mr ON Trisal, President ASKPSC made a scathing attack on Hurriyat Conference and opposed any dialogue with it. He said this conglomerate's hands were soaked in the blood of Kashmiri Pandits. He blamed it for introducing gun culture in the Valley. Mr Trisal blamed state government for outrightly ignoring the Pandit community in employment and added that out of four lakh state government employees, Pandit community's share was hardly five thousand.

Mr ON Trisal said the government was soft on terrorism and lacks the political will to fight it. He while rejecting the return formula, declared that the community would not budge an inch from its demand of "Homeland" where there will be free flow of Indian constitution. He said it was strange that GOI and state government should give recognition to murderers of democracy and peace in the Valley.

The PK leaders also presented the memorandum they had submitted to the Governor of the State on March 15 to the press. In this, they had urged upon the Governor to stop efforts to separate the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus from the overall crisis in the state and also to advise state government to desist from all such efforts that trivilise the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus. They also talked in detail about the horrible living conditions in migrant camps and the increased incidence of ailments due to it.

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