JAMMU: Kashmiri Pandits (KP) have hit out at Pakistan over its objection to settlement of the community in Kashmir, saying it has no locus-standi to dictate terms to India.
The KPs also said that if separatists and mainstream political leaders of Kashmir decide when and how KPs settle, the Pandit community would decide how they have to live and settle outside Kashmir.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry had termed the proposed resettlement of Kashmiri Pandit community in the Valley as a ploy of India to change the demography of the only Muslim majority state in India.
“Any effort to create special dedicated townships or zones, or any other step to alter the demographic make-up of Jammu and Kashmir, is in violation of the UN Security Council resolutions,” its spokeswoman, Tasneem Aslam had said.
Rejecting the statement, President of the Panun Kashmir Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo said, “Her statement is absolutely absurd and uncalled for. Pakistan has no locus standi in the affairs related to the resettlement of the Pandits and it has no business to interfere in the internal matters of the Indian state.”
National spokesman of the All Party Migrant Coordination Committee (APMCC) King Bharti said while Pakistan has settled non-Kashmiri’s in Kashmir under its occupation, it was objecting to India’s plan of resettling the aborigines of Indian Kashmir.
“The Kashmiri Pandit community belongs to Kashmir, we are the original residents of Kashmir. How can our resettlement in the land of our elders change the demography of Kashmir?” he asked.
Accusing Pakistan of sponsoring terrorism in Kashmir and being responsible for genocide of minorities there, Chairman of the APMCC, Vinod Pandit said it is now giving sermon to India.
He said the objection by Pakistan over the issue of the resettlement of the community in Kashmir has brought forth the nexus between separatists, mainstream political parties of Kashmir, Pakistan army, Pakistan government and ISI.
He said that the resolution of the UN on Kashmir has lost relevance and it has been confirmed by the successive Secretary Generals of the UNO a number of times.
“It is the Kashmiri Pandits who have a right to decide about their mode of resettlement in Kashmir,” he said.
“How can separatists, Pakistan and mainstream political parties like NC and PDP decide where we have to live? If they decide where we have to live, we will lay conditions for separatists and mainstream political leaders for construction of their houses outside Kashmir,” Kashmiri Pandit welfare committee member Sandeep Koul said.–PTI
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