[Reader-list] If these 7 can return why not the others?

[Nitesh Bhatnagar]

Nine Kashmiri Pandit families return to J&K after 20-yr exile

5 May 2008, 0328 hrs IST,TNN
SRINAGAR: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Nine_Kashmiri_Pandit_families_return_to_JK_after_20-yr_exile/articleshow/3010488.cms

In a major boost to the government's efforts to bring Kashmiri Pandits
back to the Valley, nine displaced families returned — after
two-decade-long exile — to their ancestral homes at Verinag in south
Kashmir's Anantnag district on Saturday.

This comes days after PM Manmohan Singh announced a package for
Pandits willing to return home. The package offers Rs 7.5 lakh each to
Pandits who return to the Valley. However, the families insist they
have returned voluntarily. "We had made up our mind before the PM's
announcement. We decided to come back because of the improvement in
the security scenario," Omkar Nath said.

Kanta Devi, who also returned on Saturday, said she couldn't control
her tears when she reached home and met her neighbours. "I broke down
when I saw my house after 18 long years. The reception we got from our
neighbours was also overwhelming," she said.

Another returnee Ratan Lal Koul, too, was overwhelmed. "I can't
believe that I am home. I can't tell how we spent all these years away
from our motherland, but now I have come forever," he said.