KPs welcome if they keep quiet: Yasin

Yasin Malik, leader of the mainly pro-independence JKLF, has put conditions for the return of Kashmiri Pandits. ‘‘They are welcome provided they stay neutral in the ongoing (freedom) struggle,’’ he reportedly told a group of Muslims who had visited the state on behalf of National Commission for Minorities (NCM).

Moosa Raza, a former bureaucrat who led the group, said barring Malik, all other Hurriyat leaders are eager to embrace their Hindu neighbours. Former Hurriyat chief Abdul Ghani Bhat reportedly told the team that Pandits and Muslims share a common bloodline and history. ‘‘I myself am a Bhat — my ancestors were Brahmins,’’ Bhat told the team.

Mirwaiz Moulvi Umer Farooq told Raza and others that Hurriyat was even considering issuing a joint statement to give a call for return of the Kashmiri Pandits.