[Reader-list] Under renewed threats, pandits may flee the Valley

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

Under renewed threats, pandits may flee the Valley
Peerzada Ashiq , Hindustan Times

Link - http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/jandk/Under-
renewed-threats-pandits-may-flee-the-Valley/Article1-477268.aspx

Kashmiri Pandits, who braved on in the valley at the height of militant
violence in 1989, are now scared. After threats to their life came from
members of the majority community in the Kashmir valley.

Threatening to migrate now, Sanjay K. Tickoo, who heads the Pandit Sangarsh
Samiti (KPSS), said the Samiti members were attacked on Sunday by five to
six persons from the majority community when the pandits were clicking
pictures of a temple at Chattabal.

"It was 386th temple which we wanted to document through pictures for
restoring it. But five six members from the majority community came and
threatened us," Tickoo told the Hindustan Times. "The villagers who had
gathered at the spot did not intervene. This shows that the attitude towards
the minority community has not changed."

Tickoo said these men used the words like "Jis tarah humne tumhare mandiroon
ko Jalaya hai vaise hi tum logon ko jalayenge, aur kisi ko pata bi nahi
chalega (The way we have burnt your temples, in the same way we will burn
you and no one will know about you). Yehan sirf Islam Chalega (Only Islam
will prevail here). India ko lagta hai kit tum logon ko vapas layega, jo bi
aaye ga mara jayega, hum log phir se gun uthayenge (India thinks that they
can bring Kashmiri Pandits back to Valley, who so ever will come will die,
we will again raise arms against you)."

Tickoo said the men manhandled the members of the KPSS. "We had to leave the
place."

The Samiti has now sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention in
the matter. It has also written to the both factions of the Hurriyat
Conference, which had promised them security.

"We will also send a memorandum to the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front
and the Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq tomorrow," said
Tickoo.

The KPSS requested the state and Central administration to re-think their
proposal to bring back the Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley. They should
instead the prepare to register the fresh lot of migrants who will leave the
Valley in the coming days if the situation is not taken care of in due
course of time, the Samiti leader said.

Check the Open Letter here - www.kashmiris-in-exile.blo
gspot.com/