STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Pointing out that ongoing violence in Kashmir in the aftermath of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was indicative of entire Valley being “in the grip of a fundamentalist Islamist order”, Panun Kashmir, an organisation representing migrant Kashmiri Pandits, on Tuesday alleged attacks on Hindus living there and appealed to both the Centre and the state government to evacuate them to safe places outside the Valley. “The life, safety and honour of minorities living in Kashmir is the responsibility of the government and it should show no dithering in fulfilling this responsibility,” said Panun Kashmir Convenor Dr Agnishekhar and its Chairman Dr Ajay Charangoo in a joint statement. “The communal crowds that attacked Kashmiri Pandits’ transition camp at Haal were just a gate-crash away from razing it to the ground and carrying out massacres worse than what happened in Nandimarg and Wandahama,” they alleged, adding that such attacks on Kashmiri Hindus took place all over the Valley. Alleging receipt of reports of “burning of Hindu houses, desecration of temples, life threatening harassment and intimidation”, they said that while a comprehensive picture of the situation will appear before people in coming days, these “deliberate and well organized crowd attacks on Hindus living at transition camps or elsewhere in Kashmir and their properties have been nothing less than genocidal attacks”.
With dangers to the life and existence of Hindus in Kashmir so brazenly manifest that the perfidy and viciousness of the government proposals of clusters, composite colonies to settle internally displaced Hindus in Kashmir is now clearly visible, they added. Both the Kashmiri Pandit leaders urged the Centre to “realize the gravity of situation on the ground and the dangers to the integrity of the nation from a fundamentalist separatist movement”.
“After whatever has happened with Hindus living in Kashmir in the aftermath of the killing of Burhan Wani, nobody should have any doubt that creation of a Union Territory out of areas on North and East of river Jhelum is the only way for their safe and lasting rehabilitation in the Valley,” they added.
They held “criminal appeasement of fundamentalist separatist enterprise by both the Government of India and the state government” responsible for the incidents being witnessed on the streets of Kashmir. Pointing out that the authority of the state in Kashmir has been undermined as no time before, they said that this has happened as governments both at the Centre and in the state have allowed the credibility and authority of security forces to be eroded as a matter of political policy.
