Panun Kashmir expresses surprise, disappointment over recent statement of Home Minister

Jammu, February 15, 2021:  Panun Kashmir expresses its surprise and disappointment over the recent statement of the Home Minister on the floor of the parliament regarding displaced Kashmiri Pandits.Virender Raina while reacting to the statement said that only twenty-two thousand displaced families were taking relief from the government and this includes the Muslim and other minority group from Kashmir. The statement issued in the parliament is factually incorrect. We demand that action be taken against all those who have been instrumental in furnishing wrong figures to the honourable Home Minister.

Virender Raina said that Kashmiri Pandits have suffered genocide and exodus and unless measures are taken for the reversal of these heinous crimes against the society, no amount of cosmetic measures are going to help.

Virender Raina said that the PMs Special Employment Package though important for the youth of the community has to be differentiated from the permanent resettlement of the Kashmiri Pandit Community in Kashmir on a permanent basis in their Homeland. The employment package is a livelihood measure meant for the immediate survival of the community and needs to be differentiated from return and resettlement on a permanent basis.

Resettlement of Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir is a political issue and has to be settled politically keeping in view the geo political aspirations of the Kashmiri Pandit Community. If employment in Kashmir has to be the basis of resettlement than government has to provide employment to forty four thousand displaced families from Kashmir. The powers that be need to think and ponder. Virender Raina added that even after thirty one years of KP exodus, the government does not have a clear road map for the resettlement of Kashmiri Pandits in their Homeland in Kashmir. The government needs to sit with the representatives of the Kashmiri Pandit Community and develop a clear architecture for the return and resettlement of Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir.

Kashmiri Pandits have contributed enormously in creating a global consciousness and the development of a nationalistic ethos and culture in the country and abroad and they need to be treated with respect and seriousness.