National Conference president Farooq Abdullah stated that displaced Kashmiri Pandits are welcome to return to their homes in the Valley, but expressed doubt that they would want to return permanently.
'Kashmir needs to be divided and we need the land of Panun Kashmir in Kashmir.'
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday said that the 'unelected nominees of New Delhi locked up the elected representatives' of the people of Jammu and Kashmir after prominent leaders from ruling and opposition parties were not allowed to leave their houses to prevent them from visiting the graveyard of 1931 martyrs in Srinagar.
A British MP has tabled a parliamentary motion in the House of Commons to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the "genocide of Kashmiri Pandit Hindus from Jammu and Kashmir in India." The motion, which calls for recognition and justice for the events of January 1990, has been met with support from other MPs. The motion condemns the attacks on the Hindu population of Kashmir Valley and calls for the Indian government to enact a bill to punish the perpetrators.
As the polling dates for the maiden assembly polls after abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir draws near, several organisations of the Kashmiri Pandit community has decided to refrain from the electoral process in the Union Territory over 'persistent denial of their genocide'.
In an effort to push its demand for creation of a separate "homeland" for Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley by undertaking reorganisation of the state, a frontline organisation of the community plans to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh soon.
The operation to neutralise the terrorists involved in the encounter that led to the killing of four security forces personnel continued for the second day on Thursday as the police claimed to have "encircled" two Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists in the higher reaches of Anantnag district of south Kashmir.
'The government is plucking leaves and not destroying the plant.'
The protest was organised by All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference (ASKPC), whose delegation led by its president Ravinder Raina later submitted a memorandum to the Lt Governor G C Murmu, highlighting various demands with special thrust for return and rehabilitation in their homeland.
The Symbiosis College in Pune has deferred a seminar on Kashmir after objections by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and an organisation representing displaced Kashmiri Pandits.Representatives of ABVP, the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and Panun Kashmir, who met the college authorities on Monday, said the proposed screening of a documentary, Jashn-e-Azadi, at the seminar Voices of Kashmir, projected the militants in the Valley as 'heroes'.
Displaced Kashmiri Pandits on Tuesday staged a sit-in in Srinagar to protest the all-party delegation's visit to Jammu and Kashmir and raised anti-government slogans, prompting police to cane-charge and take into custody 114 people, including 15 girls.
Kashmiri Pandits have impressed upon the central government that there should be no dilution of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and nothing should be done to weaken the state's integration with the country. A group of Kashmiri Pandits met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi on Sunday night and apprised him of their views on the current volatile situation in the state.
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.
The grabbed properties include religious places like cremation ghat and temple land of Karihama-Gutingu in Kupwara district, Batpura and Kapalmochan temples in Shopian district and Shiv temple at Thejiwara.
The Congress will make it the main issue when its Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi reaches Jammu and Kashmir early next year.
Rejecting the ideas of demilitarisation and self-rule, Panun Convenor Agnishekhar said such concepts had alarming connotations for the sovereignty of India.
Ajay Pandita, sarpanch of the Larkipora area in Anantnag district and a member of the Congress party, was shot at by terrorists in his native village at around 6 pm, a police official said. He said Pandita was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries.
Kashmiri Pandits complain that the Jammu and Kashmir government has simply cowered to hardline sentiments and that the real reason for canceling the pilgrimage was not due to ecological concerns but because of religion. Upasna Pandey reports
Not everyone in Jammu and Kashmir is optimistic about the alliance between the Peoples Democratic Party and Bhartaiya Janata Party. Upasna Pandey/Rediff.com spoke to Kashmiri pandit organisations to find out how they view the new coalition politics in the valley.
The positivity over Narendra Modi's election speech in Jammu is unanimous, but it comes with guarded optimism as many would like to wait and watch to see how the new government actually manages the 25-year-old issue, says Upasna Pandey
'Treating our ethnic cleansing with budgetary measures and financial doles is - one, not a prudent solution and second, an insult to our cause. Please understand the gravity of the situation. Our exodus is just a symptom of the malaise that has affected the valley. We would prefer to stay in exile than being sent back to be slaughtered again in a few decades. Please treat the disease and not the symptoms,' writes Lalit Koul 'Sharnarthee'.
'It is a matter of regret that the BJP and PDP refused to take the Pandits aboard in this government.' 'The present government is following a policy of soft secessionism.'
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