Separatists to hold talks with pandits

Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric and chairman of the Hurriyat Conference alliance, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, on Friday said that a select group of various separatist parties would soon be formed to initiate dialogue with Kashmiri Pandits on the issue of their returning to the Valley.

“Recently a delegation of Kashmiri Pandits met me in Srinagar. We had a positive discussion on their return and other related issues,” he said at a rally held for Friday prayers.

The Mirwaiz said it had been agreed upon during discussions between him and other key separatist leaders like Mr Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mr Muhammad Yasin Malik that a group would be formed among the parties being headed by them that would initiate “a process of dialogue and deliberation with the Kashmiri Pandits across the board to understand their concerns as well as the assurances they needed with regard to their return to the Valley”.

He added, “From our side we ask them to meet the Pandits who have stayed put in the Valley and see for themselves that they are most secure while living side by side with other communities rather than in separate colonies”.

On a separate issue, the Mirwaiz termed the proposed Sainik Colonies and new industrial policy announced by the PDP-BJP government recently as a ploy to facilitate the entry of non-state subjects in Jammu and Kashmir and “thus change the demographic character as well as the disputed nature of the state”. He alleged that the “real agenda” of the government was to facilitate the entry of non-state subjects into Jammu and Kashmir “whether it is through the onslaught of Sainik Colonies, settling of erstwhile West Pakistan refugees, giving permanent homes to non-state slum dwellers or through the industrial policy”.

Soon after the rally, clashes broke out between irate crowds and security forces which quickly spread to other areas of central Srinagar. J&K police and CRPF fired teargas and pepper gas canisters into stone-throwing crowds at several places.

Meanwhile, all-women Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief Ms Sayeda Aasiya Andrabi said in a statement that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir was alarming as New Delhi appeared to be firm on setting up Sainik Colonies and separate townships for Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley. “The puppet government gives an impression that nothing is happening. But they are working on implementing these conspiracies secretly,” she said.