An initiative of a Kashmiri Pandit organisation, backed by a rights group helmed by a Kashmiri Muslim activist, has earned the ire of Pandits after the human rights body opposed the creation of “isolated security settlements” for the community in the Valley and supported living alongside Muslims.
The proposal of the organisation, the J&K Peace Forum, figures in a representation made by the Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights (JKCHR), which enjoys consultative status with the UN’s Economic and Social Council, at the ongoing 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council. UK-based Kashmiri activist Dr Nazir Gillani heads the JKCHR.
The JKCHR welcomed the initiative of the J&K Peace Forum led by Satish Mahaldar for the proposed return of hundreds of families across Kashmir, saying it adheres to the 1992 UN declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities.
The JKCHR, however, expressed concern over the “government-proposed exclusive Pandit colonies” or “securitised settlements”, saying such schemes reduce the displaced minority to a permanent security-dependent enclave and a politically instrumental demographic tool.
Mahaldar said: “We have been advocating that we will return to our villages and localities, and not to the ghettos. The council has said it is a real road map. They have proposed our vision. We have submitted the proposal for the return of 419 families, who had volunteered for the initiative before the home ministry.”
The hardline Youth for Panun Kashmir group has condemned and “outrightly rejected the written statement” of the JKCHR, calling “it a fraudulent travesty of truth and a disgraceful attempt to whitewash the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus from their homeland”.
Youth for Panun Kashmir chairman Rahul Kaul said the Pandits did not leave Kashmir voluntarily. “They were driven out through terror, killings and open Islamist threats. To now lecture the victims about reintegration without acknowledging the genocide is intellectually dishonest and morally repugnant.”