Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 6: President, J&K Dharmarth Trust, Maj Gen (retd) RS Jamwal has strongly refuted the wild and malicious statements questioning the integrity of the Trust.
In a statement issued here today, Jamwal said it is most unfortunate that a section of the Kashmiri Pandit community has once again raised the bogey of Hindu shrines in the Valley, which can by no stretch of the imagination be considered the property of Kashmiri Pandits.
“When Maharaja Gulab Singh founded the State of Jammu and Kashmir in 1846, he also set up the J&K Dharmarth Trust, which for over one and a half century has been looking after as many as a hundred shrines in the State”, he said.
He further maintained that at the best of times, the Kashmiri Pandit community represented a miniscule minority in the Valley, and it was the Dharmarth Trust that fulfilled the responsibility of managing the shrines in the Valley.
“After 1990, the Kashmiri Pandit community virtually disappeared from the Valley, and it is to the credit of the Dharmarth Trust that they ensured that every temple under their management remained safe and operative during this period”, he said adding the one temple that was damaged in Rainawari was re-consecrated at a cost of over 20 lakh rupees.
Jamwal termed it most unfortunate that the spokesman of a section of Kashmiri Pandits has gone to the extent of launching a personal attack on Dr Karan Singh, who has for 60 years been guiding the Dharmarth Trust with great ability and foresight, adding during this period, a large number of improvements have been made in shrines throughout the State and Dr Karan Singh personally donated lakhs of rupees to the Trust.
“Therefore, to allege that Dr Karan Singh would ever do anything that is detrimental to the interests of the Hindus is malicious and condemnable”, he rued, adding attempts by a section of the Kashmiri Pandits who are living securely in the Dogra heartland to vilify Dr Karan Singh and the Dharmarth Trust are highly condemnable and will be counterproductive for the community.
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