[Reader-list] Kashmiri 'bandits' should .... return to their ancestral home - Washington declaration

[S. Jabbar]

Shivam, 

I'm surprised that it's you asking this question.  It is both offensive and
naïve to suggest that Pandits are not returning because they are holding on
to a sense of victimhood to further political ends.  Though there are,
undoubtedly, political formations that benefit from the continuing
displacement of the Pandits, including the Government of India, it is wrong
to suggest that over 200,000 people who have lost their homes, lands and
livelihood would prefer to stay in some dump in the plains because of
political gain.  

Would you think like that if it had happened to you?  I wouldn't.  If it was
safe enough for me to return, I would.  The way things are at present no
Kashmiri Pandit would risk moving back without guarantees of safety to life
and limb.  Who will give them that, the GoI that has been helpless when
massacres have taken place?  Kashmiri Muslims, who themselves are at risk
from the militant's gun?

Tragically, in the past, every time the GoI announced some package to
facilitate the return of the Pandits and the press made a noise about a few
families returning, there were massacres of the Pandits that had remained in
the valley: Wandhama, Telwani, Sangrampora, and Nadimarg. The killings were
brutal and they were brutal because the killers wanted to send out a message
in no uncertain terms.  I doubt anyone in their right minds would ignore
that and put their loved ones at risk.

The return of the Pandits would signal the end of militancy and a real
return to normalcy.  Obviously there are groups that will oppose this unless
it is part of a deal between India and Pakistan on Kashmir.  Only with a
formal end to the war, a settlement of the Kashmir issue, with the
declaration of various packages for various groups, can the Pandits actually
return.  Until then, of course individuals are free to come and go and
nobody is 'holding a gun to their heads,' but that is surely not the same
thing.

Interestingly, there are many thousand Kashmiri Muslim  men stranded on the
other side of the border who left Kashmir in the early days of the movement
and long to return to Kashmir.  They fear arrest and torture.  I met some of
them when I was in Pakistan.  They, too, dare not risk returning until the
formal end of the war.

With so many lives at stake-- those who have left, those whose lives remain
hellish in J&K, it is imperative that we keep pressuring the governments of
India & Pakistan to settle this issue.  Sadly, the momentum has been lost
because of domestic compulsions in both countries, and I don't see things
getting resolved in a hurry.

-sj


On 7/17/08 6:42 PM, "Shivam Vij शिवम् विज्" <mail at shivamvij.com> wrote:

> While a typo can be ignored, the question is worth asking: what
> prevents
pandits from being 'faciliated' to return? Militancy has declined,
> nobody is
holding a gun to Pandits' temples and quita  few happily
> (especially
businessmen) are spending six months in the Valley and six in
> Delhi. But
many. Why has the package of Rs. 16,000 crores been rejected? Do
> Pandits
even want to reurn, considering 70% have sold their land back home?
> And why
don't they want to return, considering they can buy land? Is it
> political
reasons rather than safety? Is is that many non-Jammu migrants are
> well
settled in Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, New York? Is it that returning would
> mean
giving up the political uses of victimhood and let 'separatists' say,
> "Look,
even the Pandits are back." I am not making these allegations but
> asking
questions. Like all communities the Pandits are a divided
> community.
Kshmendra Kaul does not represent them all. Everyone has different
> reasons
and different circumstances.

best
shivam


On 7/16/08, Kshmendra Kaul
> <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> A "International Kashmir Peace
> Conference" was held Washington D.C,
> 14th-15th July. It adopted the
> "Washington Declaration".
>
> The website of "Association of Humanitarian
> Lawyers", one of the sponsors
> of the Conference, furnishes the text of the
> "Declaration"
>
> Point 8 in it reads "The Conference calls for protection of
> all minorities.
> All the displaced persons including Kashmiri bandits should
> be facilitated
> to return to their ancestral home."
>
>
> http://www.humanlaw.org/kashmirstatement.html
>
> Did not know that "bandits"
> had been displaced out of Kashmir. At least
> they are being called
> 'displaced' and not 'migrants'
>
> KK
>
>
>
>
>
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