We’re not enemies, Hizb militant to Pandits

With the Valley on the boil since the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahedin’s Burhan Wani more than seven weeks ago, Kashmir’s indigenous militant outfit has asked the displaced Kashmiri Pandits to return home with the assurance that “we’re their guardians and not enemies.”

A new 11-minute video from the Hizb surfaced here on Monday evening showing one of its commanders, Riyaz Naik, speaking on varied issues including the plight of tens of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits who fled their homes in the Valley following the outbreak of militancy in 1990 and currently live in Jammu and other parts of the country.

He said, “If they want to come back, we will welcome them warmly and there is always a place for them in our hearts They are a part of our nation, we are their guardians, we are not their enemies.”

The Hizb commander insisted that Kashmiri Pandits were not forced out of Kashmir by militants and alleged that it was a “conspiracy” of the then governor, Jagmohan Malhotra. “Now we want to ask those Kashmiri Pandit brothers who left their own country in 1990s and settled in different parts of India to prove which mujahid forced them out of Kashmir It was Jagmohan’s conspiracy under which they were taken out of the Valley. He had planned to kill the Kashmiri Muslims the way the Muslims of Amritsar were massacred and then bring the Pandits back to the Valley,” (sic).

He further said, “India wants to weaken our freedom struggle by playing different conspiracies, which we will not allow.” He asked, “Who forced to leave or killed those Pandit and Sikh brothers who were staying here ”

Naik reiterated Hizb’s threat to the Kashmiri youth who want to join the police force. Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti had earlier this month said that as many as 10,000 youth would be absorbed as Special Police Officers. The posts have since been advertised formally and the authorities are expecting an overwhelming resp-onse. But Naik termed it as a “conspiracy” to weaken “our freedom struggle”.

Meanwhile, Hizb chief Syed Salahuddin has ask-ed its cadres to stay away from the “aazadi” rallies being held in Kashmir these days. In a statement, Salahuddin, who also he-ads PoK-based United Jih-ad Council, an amalgam of militant outfits, said that the militants have been “directed to engage the Indian armed forces in secluded areas only”.