In a significant move, separatists have decided to hold talks with Kashmiri Pandit migrants to discuss their return to the Valley, marking their first “serious attempt” to bring back the community which was forced to leave over 26 years back due to militancy. This personally is an achievement for Chief Minister Mehabooba Mufti who has been advocating for the return of the exiled community. Moderate Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq made this announcement during his sermons after the Friday prayers at the Jamia Masjid and said there is no precondition for the return of Pandits who are “part and parcel” of Kashmiri culture and ethos and they can support any political ideology while being in the Valley. We have decided to form a joint committee from the resistance (separatist) camp — both groups of Hurriyat Conference and JKLF-led by Mohammad Yasin Malik — which will interact with members of the Kashmiri Pandit community in the State and elsewhere as part of efforts to pave way for their return to Kashmir, he said. The return of Kashmiri Pandits has been an issue since their ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the 1990s. Most Kashmiris agree that those who wish to return should be enabled to do so. The opposition to the Pandits’ return comes chiefly from communal groups – including outsiders such as the government of Pakistan – who stand to lose if Kashmir regains the pluralist culture of Kashmiriyat, and those that have seized Pandit lands. The State and Central Governments have played into the hands of these groups by allowing the Pandits’ return to be clouded by the issue of ‘separate’ townships. That new homes would have to be built for the many Pandits who lost their original homes is undeniable. The State Government has clarified that the new townships, if built, will not be exclusively for Pandits but will be ‘composite’. However, they have done little to explain their plans and the Central Government has done even less; they do not seem to have reviewed how previous plans for the Pandits’ return have fared, and after one short initiative to encourage civil society outreach to welcome the Pandits back, they have failed to begin a dialogue with local communities in the valley on how to reintegrate the Pandits. It is these failures that have allowed agitators to prolong unrest over the issue. Its unfortunate result will be to make return more, rather than less, difficult. At present, there are about 62,000 registered Kashmiri migrant families, who have moved from the Valley to Jammu, Delhi and other parts of the country.
