BJP's Ashwani Chrungoo demands tribunal to probe crimes against minorities

In a memo to Jammu and Kashmir LG, Senior BJP leader Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo urged special tribunal to probe crimes against minorities. He said these steps should be taken immediately to build the necessary confidence to re-establish the Kashmiri Pandit community in the Valley.

Jammu:Senior BJP leader Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo urged J-K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday to form a special tribunal to probe crimes against minorities, and issue an ordinance to set up a board for management and preservation of temples and shrines in Kashmir Valley.

Chrungoo, in-charge of the Jammu & Kashmir BJP's department of political affairs, raised the demands in a memorandum to Lt Governor Sinha at a meeting here following a recent tour of the Valley.

He said these steps should be taken immediately to build the necessary confidence to re-establish the Kashmiri Pandit community in the Valley.

Chrungoo referred to the 1999 quasi-judicial order of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that crimes against the Kashmiri Pandits were undoubtedly grave, and said a special crimes tribunal need to be established to investigate the crimes against the minorities of Jammu and Kashmir, including Hindus and Sikhs, over the last 35 years.

"This will go a long way to bring justice to the wailing, weeping and crying victims of genocide in J&K who did not get justice despite the existence of the Constitution, judicial structure and the responsible and responsive governments at the Centre and in the Union Territory," the BJP leader said.

He said while the NHRC has registered his complaint and forwarded the same to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for action on it, the memorandum may be considered a formal complaint against the government of Jammu and Kashmir and also against the government of India, and the NHRC may be made a party as the negotiating adviser on the issue of the constitution of the 'Special Crimes Tribunal'.

"It is true that the time for the resettlement of the displaced Kashmiri Pandit community in Kashmir Valley has not come yet," Chrungoo, a prominent Kashmiri Pandit leader, said in the memorandum.

He said the time has come for a "bold and right step" regarding issuing an ordinance in connection with the Kashmir Hindu Temples and Shrines Bill.

"In order to protect, preserve and promote the 10,000-year-old civilizational legacy of Kashmir, an appropriate ordinance covering the objectives of the bill may be now promulgated and a board accordingly constituted to manage the affairs of the new mechanism," he added.

PTI