Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu, Sept 1: Expressing their willingness to return to their native land, representatives of various sections of Kashmiri Pandit community proposed to formulate a roadmap on this vital issue.
Over 100 representatives of different KP groups, prominent citizens and intellectuals of the community participated in a four-hour long seminar at Press Club of Jammu here last evening.
The seminar, which was organized under the auspices of National Peace Movement (NPM), was presided over by Mr M K Koul (Bairav), who in his inaugural speech underlined the need for discussing the issue threadbare in major cities of the country, including Srinagar, in order to finalise a roadmap for honourable return of displaced community to Valley.
Speakers, while expressing their hope and apprehensions due to changed scenario in the region as also in the country, stressed the need for building confidence measures and taking all stakeholders in Kashmir on board. They said the return should not be symbolic but a meaningful one and steps should be taken to achieve the goodwill of the Kashmiri Muslim brethren in this mission.
While some speakers were of the opinion that satellite township should be created, others pleaded that self housing societies should be established for building houses or hutments in the Valley. KPs should not depend on the present Central Government’s initiative unless all sections of the community are taking into confidence.
Most of the speakers, while appreciating the move of organizing the deliberations on this sensitive subject, urged for holding many more such interactions in order to formulate a roadmap which will guarantee honourable return of Pandits to their homeland in the Valley.
Prominent among those who participated in the deliberations included Maj Gen(Retd) B N Dhar, Gen Pran Koul, Sanjay Saraf, Shiban ji Ambardar, Prof B L Zutshi, Prof A N Sadhu, Anil Dhar, B L Bhat, Prof Ashok Aima and others.
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