STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Expressing hope for their return to the Kashmir Valley, thousands of Kashmiri Pandits who could not go to Tulmulla to celebrate the festival of Mata Kheer Bhawani on Sunday celebrated it at the replica of the shrine here.
Every year a large number of Kashmiri Pandits leave for Tulmulla in the Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir to participate in the annual Kheer Bhawani Mela.
“During the peak of militancy as we couldn’t go to Kashmir to celebrate the day, we constructed a replica of the temple here in Jammu,” Manoj Dhar said.
He said ever since the replica of the temple was constructed in Bhawani Nagar area of the city, people who are unable to go to Kashmir to celebrate the day came and paid their obeisance to Mata Ragnya Devi at this shrine. The members of the community who came to this temple to celebrate the day, expressed hope that they would soon be able to return to the Kashmir Valley and would be able to celebrate the day in more traditional way there.
“We are living lives of refugees within our own state and the time has come for both the state and the central governments to take steps for our dignified return and rehabilitation to the Kashmir Valley,” Ashok Kumar said.
Advocating the construction of composite colonies for the community in the Valley, Kumar said the situation was not conducive for their return to their ancestral homes.
“If the government is serious, then composite colonies in Kashmir Valley are the only solution as the situation is not conducive for our return to our villages and ancestral houses,” Kumar said. Echoing similar views, Babloo Bhat alleged, “Just last night some miscreants attacked the bus that was carrying pilgrims to Tulmulla in which two ladies were injured in such a situation how can one dare to return to his native village.”
While some members of the community oppose the setting up of separate colonies, others feel that it is the ideal proposition considering their security and safety. “We do not want separate colonies, we want to live with our Muslim brothers,” M K Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit, who was earlier a resident of Pampore in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district but now lives in Jammu. He said he would love to return to his roots and live at his native place.
