An international body of Kashmiri Pandits has sought the help of US Government and its lawmakers in the rehabilitation of the community by creation of a separate homeland for them in Jammu and Kashmir.
For the first time in its history, Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly will not have a representative from the Kashmiri Pandit community.
An influential American Senator on Tuesday asked United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to take up the plight of Kashmiri Pandits and their future with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit to US in November. "I urge you to discuss the future of the Pandits with the Indian government," Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio said in a letter to Secretary Clinton.
Only one displaced Kashmiri Pandit family has returned to the Valley so far, the government told Parliament on Tuesday.
Patil admitted that some Pandits were still suffering, but assured the Lok Sabha that attempts were being made to help them live more a secured and peaceful life.
The resolution, moved by Bharatiya Janata Party's Nishikant Dubey, as well as an amendment to include people who have migrated from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir for rehabilitation, was adopted by a voice vote.
After spending 20 years in squalid camps in Jammu, the Kashmiri Pandits, who fled their native Kashmir valley to escape ethnic cleansing, will finally move into a new township. But they are not home yet. Archana Masih reports from Jammu on the torment of the Pandits in exile, which remains one of contemporary India's worst tragedies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday pledged to work for the welfare of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, refugees from West Pakistan and kin of those killed in terrorist violence, saying the days of their neglect are over.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said that India and Pakistan came closer to resolving the Kashmir issue during the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government. He added that he does not expect a return to that situation in his lifetime. Abdullah lauded Singh's efforts on Kashmir, including the setting up of working groups on the issue, and said he practically initiated measures for the return of displaced Kashmiri Pandits. The chief minister also praised Singh's contribution to India's economic development.
'The BJP claims they have eight lakh cadres in the Kashmir Valley so why can't they contest elections from Kashmir?'
Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Kashmiri pandits on Wednesday said his purpose to resolve the Kashmir issue will be meaningless if talks with separatists were not followed up by similar parleys with them.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com comes across a Ganesh temple in Kashmir's summer capital that remains a well kept secret.
Many of the young Kashmiri Pandits argue that it is quite difficult to go back to the Valley, but for different reasons from their parents': there aren't enough opportunities there. Priyanka finds out what the community thinks in the aftermath of the interlocutors reports on the troubled state
'A man with a gun commanded respect. I thought if I also got a gun, I could save my family. With this thought, I went to Pakistan and got training there'
A large number of devotees, including Pandits and other locals, filled the streets with religious slogans, dancing, and joy.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has started interviewing eyewitnesses, including tourists, in connection with the deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, south Kashmir. The attack, carried out by terrorists from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed the lives of 26 people on April 22. Initial investigations suggest that five to seven terrorists were involved, aided by local militants trained in Pakistan. Security forces are conducting massive operations to hunt down the terrorists in the dense jungles of the Pir Panjal range.
'The wave of terrorism is over in Kashmir. Local people do not support it.'
Pandits are missing Kashmir more than ever, and KashmirOneStop.com is their window to Kashmir.
Threats were often communicated to Pandit homes through notes tied to stones chucked through a window, or a notice pasted on a wall. Those sometimes came from neighbours eyeing that Pandit family's property. Those threats often worked in the atmosphere of terror during that awful season of vacuous exercise of State authority, writes David Devadas, longtime Kashmir watcher and author of two books on the Valley.
The deceased were identified as Abdul Majeed Ganaie, Mehraj-ud-din Dar, Anees Ahmad Mir and Hameed-ul-lah Ganaie.
'Diplomatic and economic responses are first announced and then implemented. A military response is announced only after it is done.'
The Anandeshwar Bhairav temple reopens after 30 years at Maisuma in the heart of Srinagar. The area is the stronghold and residence of JKLF chief Yasin Malik.
'We want to ensure that no government in J&K will be formed without our support.'
'If Pakistan has fired one bullet at us then we have to respond by firing 10 bullets at them. It is our right to do so.'
'Sheikh Abdullah ruled the state with secular values. Post 1953, when he was sacked, corruption took over governance.'
'No Indian politician has been killed in India for upholding the Constitution except for Kashmiri mainstream politicians.' 'Yet they call us terrorist or militant.'
'Today, the gift of a good education and the opportunity it creates are out of reach for millions of struggling Californians. That's why I'm running for governor -- to create jobs and give kids a quality education. Jobs and education. That's it. That's my platform'. Neel Tushar Kashkari, the son of Srinagar-born and raised Kashmiri Pandit immigrants, throws his hat in the ring for California governor.
A blog linked to TRF, an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, published the list of 56 Kashmiri Pandit employees who were recruited under the Prime Minister's Rehabilitation Package, and warned of mounting attacks on them.
"The Congress in a way is in the grip of urban Naxals. That is why its thought has become negative," Modi alleged in his 90-minute speech.
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said 180 terrorists, 31 security personnel and 31 civilians were also killed in Jammu and Kashmir in 123 terrorist incidents this year so far.
Rai said as per the information provided by the government of Jammu and Kashmir, after the abrogation of Article 370, a total of 520 migrants have returned to Kashmir for taking up the jobs under the Prime Minister's Development Package-2015.
Reviving the memories of the glorious traditions of communal harmony in Jammu and Kashmir, Muslim neighbours in this town helped perform the last rites of a Kashmiri Pandit who died last evening.
The protesters assembled outside the office of the Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat at Rajbagh in Srinagar and held a protest.
The mass exodus of the Kashmiri Pandit community changed the very cultural ethos of Kashmir and there has been little turnback despite three decades having gone by since it got triggered by growing fundamentalism fuelled from across the border, Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said on Monday.
Even as KPs lined up across special polling stations in Jammu amid tight security, several of them had to return without casting their vote.
''I am not going to force anyone to watch movies. If they want to, they can come and watch.' 'I want to give them the choice that everyone has in the rest of the country.'
Braving the heat, hundreds of protesters, including women and children, gathered at the Jantar Mantar to protest against the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley.
The Kashmiri Pandit Sabha threatened to intensify its agitation, if the government did not stop threatening to withhold the salaries of KP employees and forcing them to come back to the valley, where they are under mortal threat from terrorists.
Lashing out at Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, Rashid on Wednesday alleged that they have "destroyed" Kashmir.
'...One of the biggest human tragedies and still not acknowledged the atrocities this community had to go through!'
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