JAMMU: Cutting across party lines, several mainstream parties and Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) on Friday 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 on Thursday 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.
“Pakistan has no business to interfere in the internal matter of India. They should better look after their own ills,” senior Congress leader Dr Rashid Choudhary said.
“Kashmiri Pandits are the part and parcel of the Kashmir society. They have full rights on Kashmir,” he said.
Pakistan should stop supporting violence in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, adding there is no demographic change in the state.
“Changing the demography of J&K state by rehabilitating KPs is totally untrue as they are permanent citizens of the state in Kashmir. This is no way going to change the democratic character of Kashmir. This is some wrong information, perhaps with the Government of Pakistan”, NC additional general secretary Dr Sheikh Mustafa Kamal told reporters here.
“The KPs who are minuscule minority and the part of the population of Kashmir had to leave Kashmir and the issue is resettling those KPs now,” he said, adding that it doesn’t violated any commitments India has given to UN.
“I do not see the statement of the foreign office of the Pakistan in consonance with the reality,” Kamal said. (PTI)