SRINAGAR — An organisation of displaced Hindu community of Indian administered Kashmir Saturday stressed on the need of a separate homeland for them in the Valley which they said would satisfy the aspirations of seven lakh-members of the community.
Panun Kashmir president Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo said the organization was of the firm belief that a separate homeland alone would satisfy the urges and aspirations of the Kashmiri Pandit community.
“Any other form of resettlement in Kashmir that does not address the geo-political aspirations of the community would lead to refoulment like the previous seven exoduses,” he said while addressing a function in Jammu to commemorate the Margdarshan Resolution on the occasion of Homeland day.
Chrungoo said all methods aimed at diluting the fundamental geo-political aspirations of the Kashmiri Pandit community will fail. “We have seen in the recent past some statements appearing in the press suggesting various experiments in regard to the resettlement in Kashmir. Such statements have the potential to confuse the community at a crucial juncture and should be avoided,” Chrungoo said.
All those community members who become part of such experimentation will harm the community interests in the long-run, he said, adding, the return and resettlement is a most serious political issue.
“It was the Margdarshan resolution that paved way for the organised resistance to genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir,” Chrungoo said.
He said the resolution which advocated separate homeland for Kashmiri Hindus on the North and East of river Jhelum with free flow of Indian constitution with union territory status, has stood the test of time for the last more than two decades and their belief in the historic resolution is increasing by the day.
Voicing similar views, Virender Raina, spokesperson, Panun Kashmir said that a separate homeland for Kashmiri Pandits also meets the strategic imperatives of the nation by strengthening the restive northern frontiers.
In the emerging political scenario, after the America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and China making inroads in PoK, the situation for India could become hazardous.
In this situation, Panun Kashmir on the north and east of river Jhelum in Kashmir would serve as a “bulwark” against both China and Pakistan, Raina said.