SRINAGAR: The Kashmiri Pandits still living in the valley have strongly reacted to Indian government’s assertion that the community is facing a threat.
The Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti – a representative body of Pandits in the valley – has described the junior home minister, RPN Singh’s statement in the Indian parliament in this regard as “callous”.
Nearly 100 thousand Kashmiri Pandits have fled the valley after the outbreak of an armed conflict more than two decades ago. However, about 3000 of them have stayed put.
The minister of state for home affairs, Singh in a reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha a couple of days ago said that the Pandits living in the valley had received a letter threatening them to leave in a week.
The president of KPSS, Sanjay Tickoo says the letter was delivered to Kashmiri pandits living at Sheikhpora (in Budgam district) last year. But he says there has been no evidence that it came from any militant outfit. In fact, he says the police then dismissed the letter as a prank.
Tickoo says the union minister has dug-up old graves to vitiate the atmosphere in the valley. “We are surprised why this question was raised and replied to so immaturely at this time, when entire Kashmir is on boil due to political failures at different levels,” he says.
Tickoo says the “insensitive” attitude of the Indian government will make the situation “grimmer for the people of Kashmir and especially the minorities.”
He says the immediate problem before the Kashmiri Pandits living in the valley is that they are unable to celebrate the Shivratri festival which falls on March 9.
“In this curfew/hartal situation we can’t go out and get the required things for this annual religious celebration,” Tickoo says.
He says the government has not spared a thought for the community.
