Jammu, July 8
The joint working council of two premier organisations of displaced Pandits, Panun Kashmir and Panun Kashmir Movement, has in a memorandum to the UN Secretary-General said that the issue of resettlement of Pandits be recognised as a legitimate geopolitical concern in respect of the Kashmir tangle that should engage the attention of the ensuing Indo-Pakistan summit.
It has requested the UN Secretary-General to use his influence so that the future of the displaced minority community is given priority during the summit.
In the four-paged memorandum, the council has referred to the travails of refugees.
Accusing fundamentalists and pro-Pakistan forces for carrying out ethnic cleansing in Kashmir, the memorandum has suggested the UN head to ponder over issues connected with the future of the Pandits having vital political and security ramifications in the whole of South Asia.
It has posed several questions to the UN Secretary-General and pleaded that such questions be given weightage during the summit.
It has asked “whether in future the criteria for the survival of existing form of state will be determined by religion alone? Will the principles of governance, administration etc be determined in conformity with the dictates of religion of the majority?”
“Will the minority in such states lose their claim on land, their rights, cultural roots and their fundamental and human rights?”
“Will the majority community have the right to carry out cleansing of the minority community by genocide, as has been the case in the Kashmir valley? Will indigenous people lose their right on their homeland?”
The joint working council has also stated that involvement of leaders of the Pandit community in the proposed talks on Kashmir is imperative because the Pandits have been inhabiting the land for the past 5,000 years.
The memorandum says you cannot decide the future of an area without consulting those who have inhabited the areas for centuries. The memorandum has been signed by Dr Agnishekhar, convener, Panun Kashmir, and Mr Ashwani Chrungoo, President, Panun Kashmir Movement.
The memorandum says while the Hurriyat Conference has taken centre-stage, when the organisation is just seven years old, the Pandits have been ignored.
“Let the Governments of India and Pakistan talk to any political segment. We have no reservations. But we want that we too be involved in the dialogue process because we are the real party to the Kashmir dispute,” the leaders said.
