[Reader-list] Stay Away,Pandits Told-Telegraph

[rashneek kher]

  Stay away, Pandits told
 OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080804/jsp/nation/story_9643825.jsp

*Srinagar, Aug. 3:* Hizb-ul Mujahideen founder Ahsan Dar has announced his
return from Muzaffarabad to join the jihad, with a warning to the exiled
Kashmiri Pandit community not to return home.

A CD containing his statement was distributed among some media agencies in
Kashmir. In it, he has asked the Pandits not to return to the Valley unless
New Delhi solves the Kashmir issue.

"I will advise Kashmiri Pandits not to take a foolish step to return to the
Valley. And those leaders who have sympathy with the Pandits' return, leave
Kashmir and stay with them in Jammu," Dar said.

Dar had founded the Hizb in 1989 but was dislodged a year later by Syed
Salahuddin and forced to set up a new militant group by the name of Muslim
Mujahideen.

He was arrested in the early 1990s and released after spending several years
behind bars.

"In the late 1990s, he left for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir again and, if the
reports about his return are true, then he is back in the Valley after
around a decade," a police official said.

Dar had differences with the Jamat-e-Islami, which had then declared the
Hizb its militant wing. This led to his ouster and replacement by Syed
Salahuddin. A teacher by profession, he belongs to the Pattan area of south
Kashmir.

"The Kashmir issue concerns 1.2 crore Muslims of the state and it does not
revolve around Kashmiri Pandits alone. Nobody talks of Muslim migrants
living in Azad Kashmir and we believe when the issue of 1.2 crore will be
resolved, we can then think about Kashmiri Pandits," Dar said.

This is in marked contrast to the statement of other separatist leaders who
are encouraging Kashmiri Pandits to return.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in April set the stage for the return of
Kashmiri migrant Pandits to their homes and announced a package estimated at
Rs 1,600 crore, which included Rs 7.5 lakh for rebuilding houses,
identifying land and providing the unemployed Pandit youths with jobs.


-- 
Rashneek Kher
Wandhama Massacre-The Forgotten Human Tragedy
http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com