Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 2: In the backdrop of J&K Assembly elections, three organisations of Kashmiri Pandits including All India Kashmiri Samaj (AIKS), Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora (GKPD), and the Jammu Kashmir Vichar Manch (JKVM) today asked the mainstream political parties of the J&K to clear their stand towards resolving long unresolved issues of unending running exile and the redressal of the core concerns of displaced Kashmiri Pandits and a clear cut roadmap for their return and rehabilitation”.
Talking to reporters at a press conference here, today Dr. Ramesh Raina, Dr. Utpal Koul, Daleep Mattoo, Ashwani Bhat and Dr Manorama Bakshi sought a straight and clear answers from the mainstream political parties about the steps and measures they intend to take post elections to restore the faith and confidence of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits, address their threat perception and injustice meted out during all these 35 years of exile. Given these issues, it has become imperative for the political parties to convince the beleaguered community about their intentions of timely execution of a policy framework regarding the issues of concern and a roadmap for their rehabilitation in Kashmir consistent with the noted KP community stand aired through regular organisational meetings and media all these years. They also called for taking the frontline KP organisations into confidence.
They also took serious exception to change of the names of sacred Hindu sites such as Shankaracharya Hill as Takht-i-Sulaiman and Hari Parbat as Koh-e-Maran and said it is not acceptable at any cost. This tantamount to revisionism that seeks to erase the region’s Hindu heritage. They also demanded establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for civil society, as recommended by the Supreme Court, passage of Temples and Shrine Bill for the control and management of KP temples, shrines and their cultural centres and urged the Government to ensure well-being of PM package employees and those KPs who did not leave Valley in the wake of terrorism and thereafter.
They also demanded the improved living condition for the people living in migrant camps in different areas of Jammu. The KP leaders said that they will remain steadfast in their demand for justice and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandit community and as a first step it would jointly follow up the issue with the powers that be.
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