Srinagar: Differences have cropped up among Kashmiri Pandits over the Centre's reported proposal of rehabilitating some Kashmiri migrants in the Valley after over three decades.
This follows the reported plans of the Centre in consultation with the Omar Abdullah-led government to facilitate the return of Kashmiri Pandits to their homeland after more than three decades of their exodus. The ruling National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah had urged the Kashmiri Pandits to 'come back home' with an assurance that the party is not their 'enemy'.
After the outbreak of militancy in 1989, thousands of people, particularly Kashmiri Pandits, fled to the safety of the plains in Jammu in the face of targeted attacks. The Jammu and Kashmir Migrant Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection and Restraint on Distress Sales) Act, 1997, describes them as "migrants".
Official data says over 62,000 families had to abandon their homes and leave the Valley. Around 40,000 of them now live in Jammu and some 20,000 in New Delhi.
In 2010, data shared in the J&K Assembly said that 219 Kashmiri Pandits have been killed in the Valley since 1989. This includes retired district and sessions judge Neelkanth Ganjoo (on November 4, 1989) who had sentenced Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) founder Maqbool Bhat to the gallows.
Satish Mahaldar, who heads the J&K Peace Forum and Kashmiri Pandit representative, said they had submitted a list of 419 families with the Ministry of Home Affairs ‘volunteering’ for returning to the Valley in 2019. But he alleges some of his counterparts are objecting to the move and giving it a ‘communal’ colour and hence disturbing the bond between the two communities.
"It is a volunteer effort from Kashmiri Pandits across the country to return to Kashmir. We want a cohesive society but they (KP organisations) are spreading hate," Mahaldar said while referring to a joint statement issued to media by Kashmiri Pandit organisations against the plan.
According to him, they have asked the government to provide them with accommodation anywhere in the Valley as they lack homes now. The majority of the Kashmiri Pandits families sold their properties after settling in different parts of the world with many dubbing it a 'distress sale'.
Dr Ramesh Raina, a representative of Kashmiri Pandits, fears the environment is not conducive for their return citing multiple reasons. He said this includes ‘Islamic radicalisation’ and ‘hybrid terrorism’, which has resulted in the selected killing of migrant workers in the Valley.
"Return and rehabilitation is a public relation exercise from the new government," said Raina, who stepped down as president of All India Kashmiri Samaj (AIKS), an apex body of Kashmiri Hindus, on November 10. AIKS is the apex body of Kashmiri Pandits.
"There is no blueprint and confidence-building-measures. There are few neo-activists from our community who are eager to return but we don’t subscribe to their idea. There is a large-scale rejection of this idea," he added.
In Jammu’s Jagti camp, which is the largest settlement with over 4,224 registered Kashmiri Pandits families comprising more than 20000 people, a Kashmiri Pandit activist Sunil Pandita finds himself at a loss amid this debate as nothing has changed for him.
"We got to know about the plan only through the media. There is nothing official in it," he said. "Unless the government comes up with a plan, only then can we support or oppose it. How can we believe anything unless there is any blueprint with us," he added.
