Separate zones for Pandits in
J&K
It will create further rift between Muslims and Pandits: NC
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has accepted the
demand for creating separate zones for Kashmiri Pandits,
a move that is seen by the vast majority in the Valley as the creation of “a
State within a State.”
Mr. Sayeed assured Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday that his
government would immediately start the process for creating the zones, which
the Peoples Democratic Party describes as “composite townships.”
“The Chief Minister assured Mr. Singh that the State government would
acquire and provide land at the earliest for composite townships in the
Valley,” an official statement said.
They will not be exclusive Pandit zones, says PDP
With Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed accepting the demand for
creating separate zones for Kashmiri Pandits, Peoples Democratic Party chief
spokesperson Naeem Akhtar said here on Tuesday that the “composite townships”
planned would not be an exclusive area for Kashmiri Pandits and would be open
to all other communities. He said the percentage or other structural details of
these townships had not yet been decided.
“We will build flats across rural Kashmir and around the city which
anyone can buy, including Kashmiri Pandits. While the move is to bring back
Kashmiri Pandits into the Valley, we will not create Pandit exclusive
townships,” Mr. Akhtar told The Hindu.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had actively pursued the return of
Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley and the creation of separate zones for them. He
had written to the previous Omar Abdullah government and J&K Governor N. N.
Vohra asking for identification of land for rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits.
Both the National Conference and the Congress, coalition partners in the
last erstwhile government, said they disapproved of the move. During their time
in the government, they had urged the Pandits to live with everyone else.
“We wanted Kashmiri Pandits to come back and live with everyone and not
in separate zones. It is not a wise decision to create a State within a State,”
J&K Congress president Ghulam Ahmad Mir said. “Such an exclusive township
or satellite city will neither serve the purpose of reintegration of Kashmiri
Pandits into society nor will it set a good precedent toward reconciliation.”
National Conference leader Ali Mohammad Sagar said the creation of such
townships would “create further rift between Muslims and Pandits rather than
bring them closer.” “It is a dangerous idea which defeats the very purpose of
the return of Kashmiri Pandits. They should come back and live with everyone
else, so that we have a Kashmir as we had then,” Mr. Sagar said.
Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said that while he always welcomed
the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley, the creation of separate cities
for them was unacceptable.
“The Pandits should come back to their own villages, towns and
neighbourhoods and live where they want to like Sikhs and the Muslims do here.
They are a part of Kashmir. But once the government is pushing for separate
homelands and townships for them, it is a devious plan to create Israel-type
settlements in Kashmir,” Mr. Geelani said.
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