KL News Network
Srinagar
A civil society group Friday strongly condemned the statement of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for and said that she was “maligning and demonising Kashmirs by distorting facts.
“She must apologize to Kashmiris for this vilification but then she owes countless apologies to them and can atone only by resignation and remorse. By deliberately confusing Kashmiris’ principled opposition to carving out separate enclaves in Kashmir in the name of pandits with their non-existent opposition to their dignified return is nothing but an instance of either perceptual blindness or deliberate attempt at obfuscating issues,” Hameeda Nayeem, the chairperson of the group, KCSDS, said in a statement.
She said that no Kashmiri from Syed Ali Geelani to a common citizen has ever opposed pandits’ return to the Valley, but have only opposed communal balkanization, the separate enclaves and settlement of non-Kashmiris in pandit enclaves by deception and the selective permission of return to one community only.
“This treacherous policy of the state at the behest of central government is definitely dubious and fraught with disastrous consequences for the communal harmony as well as demography of the state because in the name of pandits we do not know how many non-state subjects would be settled as we would have no access to them,” she said.
Hameeda Nayeem said that the passing of resolution for their return is welcome but not in trying to clandestinely making up of enclaves under this garb and even by splattering them with the thin layer of Muslims. “Enclave is an enclave whether you make them up of pandits and Muslims or exclusively for pandits. May we also remind her about other resolutions that the house has passed on autonomy and resettlement and implement them fully before the latest one in their chronological sequence.”
“Along with pandits there are those Muslims also who fled the valley in 1990s and have crossed over to Pak administered Kashmir for safety. We can’t allow the privileging of the return of one community to the exclusion of all others who have been displaced at various points of time because of Kashmir dispute. We are inclusive in our approach and that is apparent in our stand.”
