Kashmiri Pandits seek `displaced community’ status

NEW DELHI, SEPT 14: Pannun Kashmir -- a frontline organisation of displaced Kashmiri people -- today demanded the community be declared as...

NEW DELHI, SEPT 14: Pannun Kashmir — a frontline organisation of displaced Kashmiri people — today demanded the community be declared as “internally-displaced people” under the United Nations Charter of Human Rights and be protected against coercion into returning to their native land.

Dr Anishekhar, convenor of Panun Kashmir, conveyed this to Home Minister L.K. Advani at a meeting today. The community observes the day as `Balidaan diwas’ to commemorate the killings of Hindus during the insurgency in Kashmir. On this day 11 years ago, Tika Lal Taploo, a leading BJP leader from Kashmir was gunned down in Srinagar. Pannun also sought Advani’s greater involvement in Kashmir’s affairs.

Meanwhile, speaking at a function organised by Kashmiri Samiti, senior BJP leader Kedarnath Sahni called upon Kashmiri Pandits to return home now that the situation in the state was improving, especially owing to the increasing disillusionment among the local people with Pakistan.

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Chaman Lal Gupta, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, sharing similar views urged Kashmiri Pandits to forge unity. He said but for the constraints of running a coalition government, the BJP was sincerely concerned in resolving the Kashmir tangle.

Colonel Bahl, an ex-Army officer who runs Harmony — an NGO — said the plight of the displaced Kashmirs living in camps was pitiable. He said about 40 per cent of them were suffering from stress-related diabetics. He said people in these migrant camps have to make do without the monthly stipend from the Government for months together. Besides, the medical room were being run without medicines and schools were non-functional.

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